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When a constitutional law professor warns of “dangerous foes” threatening New Zealand’s legal system, you might expect concern about genuinely destabilising forces – political interference with judicial independence, or threats to the rule of law itself. You would be wrong. Read more

New research finds that incomes per capita in Italy could be 5% higher if the government wrote better laws. Many laws are confusing and hard to understand. Read more

Supreme Court Matters: Revolution by Judicial Decree A Review of Professor Peter Watts KC’s “Ellis v R: A Revolution in Aotearoa New Zealand, Welcome or Not” Revolutions conjure images of violent uprisings, the storming of institutions, and the forcible overthrow of existing orders. But constitutional foundations can be destroyed through more subtle means. Read more

The New Zealand Law Society’s new report, Strengthening the Rule of Law in Aotearoa New Zealand, runs to more than eighty pages, includes seventy-eight recommendations, and reflects a considerable investment of time and goodwill. Its aims are noble: to bolster constitutional integrity, improve access to justice, and promote respect for the rule of law. Read more

Donald Trump returned to power with America’s highly politicised universities squarely in his sights. Within weeks of his inauguration, his administration launched a sweeping campaign targeting dozens of institutions nationwide. Read more

Resources Minister Shane Jones recently floated a novel idea: government-backed insurance for oil and gas investors to protect them against future policy reversals. Let that sink in. Read more

When does a “woman” include a biological male? And who gets to decide – Parliament or the courts? Read more

There’s a fragility to rules-based orders that has been around for as long as those orders have. So long as people generally agree that it is good to be bound by the rules, and that trying to change the rules is better than ignoring or breaking them, a rules-based order can persist. Read more

I have no doubt that Peter Smith loves the West. You can feel it in every line of his writing – the anger at its enemies, the contempt for its betrayal, the frustration at its leaders who lack the courage to defend it. Read more

Two ships passing in the night might share the same destination yet follow very different courses. So it seems with David Harvey’s latest response to my report for The New Zealand Initiative, Who Makes the Law? Read more