New Zealand

Legislation | Caselaw | Legal publishers | Government-related sites | Search engines / Directories | Library catalogues

Legislation

New Zealand Legislation
Maintained by the Parliamentary Counsel Office, this site provides full text access to consolidated electronic versions of acts, regulations and bills. Legislation can be browsed and searched, point in time versions are also available. Legislation bearing the NZ Coat of Arms have semi-official status. Legislation repealed after September 2007 is also available.

New Zealand Deemed Regulations
This site is maintained by the Parliamentary Counsel Office and provides access to a table of deemed regulations which can be browsed by a list of Acts under which the regulations have been made. The site also provides a link to the Table of Acts and Ordinances and Statutory Regulations in Force.

LegislationNZ
Accessed via The Knowledge Basket, this site provides free browsable access to unofficial copies of Acts, Bills, SOPs and Regulations.

New Zealand Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)
Hansard is available from 2003 in a browseable format. The site includes, advance and final copies of Hansard as well as indexes. This resource is provided by the Office of the Clerk.

Māori Land Legislation
Maintained by the University of Auckland, this site provides a searchable database of all New Zealand legislation from 1840 to 1995 (including private and local acts) which has affected Māori people and Māori land. The site also provides brief abstracts on the historical context and impact of each Act along with references to government publications.

New Zealand Parliament
The Parliamentary Business page provides access to Bills, SOPs, Order Papers, Journals and Standing Orders.

New Zealand Acts of 1888 to 1894
This electronic collection contains facsimiles of all Acts enacted between 1888 and 1894. These volumes were printed on acid paper that has deteriorated with time, and is now in many cases so brittle that it disintegrates when handled (ie, Shattering Statutes).

Subscription Only
Thomson Reuters provides access to the full text of New Zealand Acts and Regulations currently in force, historical versions as well as selected repealed legislation.
LexisNexis provides access to the full text of New Zealand Acts and Regulations currently in force, as well as selected repealed legislation.
The Knowledge Basket provides free browsable access and subscription based searchable access to NZ Acts and Regulations.

Back to top

Caselaw

Judicial Decisions Online - Ministry of Justice
Ministry of Justice site which provides full text access to all unreported Supreme Court decisions, Court of Appeal from 1st January 2003 and High Court decisions from 1st September 2005.  Administrative minutes and decisions subject to suppression orders are not available. The decisions can only be accessed via a search of the database. The database can be search by keyword, court, location, judge, party name, counsel and be restricted by year.

Courts of New Zealand
Contains recent decisions from the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal and High Court. Decisions can be browsed and are removed from the site after 28 days. Most decisions are published on the site within a day of being delivered and are generally restricted to criminal sentences and judgments of public interest.

Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC)
Provides full text browsable access to District Court decisions from 2006.

Advertising Standards Authority Inc
Full text of decisions from 2001 onwards and summaries of decisions for 2000. Decisions can be searched by keyword, media and code.

Broadcasting Standards Authority
Searchable database of Broadcasting Standards Authority Decisions.

CCH Tax Site
Contains links to recent IRD rulings and tax cases, which have not been reported in CCH publications yet. Most of the cases are stored as PDF files, so Adobe Acrobat Reader is needed to view them. Also contains links to articles on employment; health & safety; company and business law.

Commerce Commission
Provides full text access to decisions from 1997 which are available in PDF format. 
Located under the Public Registers tab the decisions are divided according to subject.
Mergers and Acquisitions - Clearances
Mergers and Acquisitions - Authorisations
Anti-Competitive Practices - Authorisations
Electricity Industry Reform Act - Exemptions
Dairy

Coroners' Recommendations Register
The register contains a list of the cases that were opened under the new Coroners Act 2006 where the case has been closed and a recommendation has been given. 

Court of Appeal
These decisions can be accessed from the following:
New Zealand Legal Information Institute (NZLII) - full text searchable database of decisions from 1999.
Australian Legal Information Institute (AustLII) - full text searchable database of decisions from 1999. 
Ministry of Justice - full text searchable database of decisions from 2003.
Courts of New Zealand - recent decisions can be browsed.  Decisions are removed from the site after 28 days.

Department of Building and Housing Determinations
This site hosts determinations of the Department of Building and Housing. Determinations can be searched according to Building Code clause, subject or keyword. They are also available in a browsable format.

Deportation Review Tribunal
Full text decisions from 2007.

Directory of Decisions
Lists the Courts, Tribunals, Statutory Authorities and other such bodies in New Zealand which make legal or quasi-legal decisions. Provides information as to how copies of decisions might be obtained either through published reports, indexing services or online.

Employment Court
Provides full text access to decisions from 1st July 2006.

Employment Case Summaries Online
Provided by the Employment Relations Service, this monthly publication provides summaries of employment cases. Available from 2005.

Family Court of New Zealand Decisions
Provides full text access to selected unreported decisions from 2005 which can be browsed by subject area.

Health and Disability Commissioner's Opinions
Links to the Health & Disability Commissioner's opinions, which can be accessed by using the opinions index in chronological order, or the search facility.

High Court of New Zealand
Judgments from  August 2005 can be searched via the Ministry of Justice site and  decisions from within the last month can be browsed on the Courts of New Zealand site.

Human Rights Commission
Links to decisions from 2002 of the Human Rights Review Tribunal on NZLII, provides access to recent, significant Tribunal and Court cases as well as some limited pre- 2002 Tribunal and court decisions.

Immigration & Refugee Law
Residence Review Board decisions, information about the Authority, FAQs and useful links. The Removal Review Authority and the Refugee Status Appeals Authority sites also contain decisions, information about the various bodies, FAQs and links to other useful sites.

Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand
The Information Library (Hearings Folder) provides full text access to all Patent, Trade Mark and Design decisions since 1953 issued by the Commissioner of Patents, Trade Marks and Designs.

Legal Aid Review Panel (LARP)
A searchable database of full text LARP decisions. The database is updated weekly.

Legal Complaints Review Officer Decisions
Contains the full text of decisions of the Legal Complaints Review Officer from Feb 2009.

Liquor Licensing Authority
A searchable database of decisions from 2003.

Medical Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal
Provides access to the decisions of the Medical Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal, organised by Finding, Charge Characteristic, Additional Orders and Commonly Cited cases.

Motor Vehicle Disputes Tribunal
Decisions of the Motor Vehicle Disputes Tribunal of New Zealand from 2006.

New Zealand Legal Information Institute (NZLII)
Provides links to cases including the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal, Commerce Commission and Privacy Commission. Links to full text university law journals, Law Commission papers and legislation are also given.

New Zealand Parole Board Decisions
Provides full text access to decisions that have been requested by the media. Other decisions can be requested subject to privacy aspects. An email address is provided.

Office of the Domain Name Commissioner
Contains the full text of determinations of the Domain Name Commissioner. The site also contain decisions resulting from appeals.

Privy Council Judgments
Official site for judgments from this final Court of Appeal for some Commonwealth countries. Judgments from 1999 onwards, as well as key judgments prior to 1999, are now available. Links to information about the Judicial Committee, and the additional work of the Privy Council.

RefNZ - New Zealand Refugee Law
Contains headnotes of decisions of the Refugee Status Appeal Authority, leading full text decisions of the Refugee Status Appeals Authority and abstracts of decisions of the New Zealand High Court and Court of Appeal. It also contains papers on New Zealand refugee jurisprudence, comment on current refugee issues, recent news and developments in refugee law, key New Zealand refugee statistics and links to other refugee web sites.

Refugee Status Appeal Authority Decisions
Provides the full text of decisions of the Authority since 1997.

Social Security Appeal Authority Decisions
Provides the full text of decisions since 2008 where beneficiaries have appealed about their benefits.

Sports Disputes Tribunal of New Zealand
Provides access to the full text decisions of the tribunal.

Student Allowance Appeal Authority Decisions
Provides access to the full text of decisions of the Authority since 2004.

Supreme Court of New Zealand
Decisions can be access from the following:
Ministry of Justice - searchable database of all decisions.
Courts of New Zealand - browsable access to all decisions.  Case summaries are also available.
New Zealand Legal Information Institute (NZLII) - searchable and browsable access to all decisions.

Taxation Review Authority Decisions
Provides access to the full text decisions of the Authority since 2006.

Tenancy Tribunal
Orders can be searched by file number, party name or address.

Youth Court of New Zealand
Contains summaries of decisions from 1989 onwards. Decisions can be browsed according to subject, by sections under the Children Young Persons and Their Families Act 1989 or by date.

Subscription only
The Knowledge Basket
Provides access to abstracts of cases through LINX and Briefcase.

LINX and LINXplus provide summaries of Court of Appeal, High Court and lower court decisions including Environment and Employment court cases. LINXplus provids access to over 10,000 full text judgments, including High Court decisions, and jump links to full text reported cases and journal articles. Information about the product and subscription options are availabe at LINX database

Briefcase provides summaries of Court of Appeal, High Court and lower court decisions.

Back to top

Legal publishers

Thompson Reuters (formerly Brookers) includes subscription-based access to Brookers Online database of legislation and Alert24, a current awareness service. Subcribers can choose multiple areas of law and how much information to receive. All alerts are archived for searching.

LexisNexis includes subscription-based access to Butterworths Current Law, a fortnightly update service which provides abstracts of Court and tribunal decisions, new Bills, Acts and Regulations. It also notes selected English and Australian decisions.

CCH New Zealand includes access to the CCH Current Awareness service with access to legislation, media releases, discussion documents, issues papers, and IRD rulings and statements.

Back to top

Government-related sites

New Zealand Government Online (NZGO)
Provides background information on New Zealand's history, constitution and government as well as an A-Z directory containing links to Government departments and  Ministries.

Courts of New Zealand
Includes information about the court system, links to Court sites and provides full text access to Practice Notes, selected decisions and transcripts as well as media releases.

Civil Aviation Authority
The Rules & More page contains links to the Consolidated Civil Aviation Rules, forms, Advisory Circulars, Air Worthiness Directives, New Zealand Technical Standard Orders and a copy of the Civil Aviation Act. It has an extensive links page to civil aviation-related sites in NZ and other jurisdictions.

Crown Law Office
The Crown Law Office provides legal advice and representation services to the government in matters affecting the executive government, particularly in the areas of criminal, public and administrative law. The services provided include matters covering judicial review of government actions, constitutional questions including Treaty of Waitangi issues, the enforcement of criminal law, and protection of the revenue. The Office administers the prosecution process in the criminal justice system, in particular, trials on indictment before juries.

Department of Corrections
The Policy and Legislation page contains links to relevant legislation, the Prison and Community Probation Service manuals and department Code of Conduct.

Directory of Official Information
The Directory includes a description of all central Government organisations covered by the Official Information Act 1982, including their functions, structure, records, manuals, committees and contact officers.

Land Transport Safety Authority
Contains information concerning transport including legislation and rules, the road code, various LTSA publications, fact sheets and sections on driver licensing, vehicle licensing, vehicle ownership and importing vehicles.

Law Commission
Provides access to publications of the Law Commission including Law Commission Reports.

Local councils
Provides information about local councils as well as links to all regional, city and district councils. Also provides access to important legislation affecting local government.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade Treaties
Provides a list of and links to Multilateral and Bilateral Treaties signed by New Zealand since 1 January 2000

New Zealand Bill of Rights Act : Advice provided to the Attorney-General
This site provides material that was supplied by the Ministry of Justice and the Crown Law Office on the consistency of new legislation with the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990. Advice from 2003 is available and can be accessed either by bill title, date of advice provided and NZBOR provisions.

New Zealand Government
The official website of the New Zealand Government. Contains full text of government press releases, speeches, and biographies of the Prime Minister and the other Members of Parliament. There are also archived sites available for the 1993-1996 and 1996-1999 governments.

New Zealand Immigration Service Operational Manual
Includes criteria that applicants must meet, evidence they need to produce and application process.

New Zealand Gazette On-Line
Provides a searchable database of New Zealand Gazette Notices from 1993. Notices can also be browsed according to Act names and categories. Full-text Gazettes from 2000 are available in a browsable format. (These are organised according to year and month).

New Zealand Parliament
Contains links to biographies for Ministers, the Government and the Opposition. It provides information about the business of Parliament. Including details of bills, Order Papers, Acts and regulations, the Order Paper, Debates (Hansard), oral questions, written questions, daily progress, Journals, select committee reports, papers, petitions presented, Standing Orders, Speakers' Rulings, and sessional orders.

Office of the Ombudsmen
Provides information on the history and purpose of the Ombudsmen's Office. Also includes links to practice guidelines (which set out the approach to issues arising under the Ombudsmen Act 1975, the Official Information Act 1982, and the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987) and the Quarterly Review.

Privacy Commissioner
Provides information on the Privacy Act and Codes of Practice as well as news and publications.

Serious Fraud Office
The home page of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) outlines the functioning of the SFO, and summarises pending cases and completed prosecutions from 2001 onward.

Waitangi Tribunal
Includes information about the Waitangi Tribunal and provides access to the Reports of the Waitangi Tribunal. The Reports can be browsed, or searched.

Work and Income New Zealand
Contains the WINZ manual and procedures used by WINZ staff to help guide their decisions.

Back to top

Search engines / directories

Access New Zealand
A commercial site which has arranged NZ company websites, organisations and general websites into subject headings such as Government, Industrial and Transportation.

ANZWERS
Australasian search engine useful for locating New Zealand materials.

Search NZ
Commercially produced search engine for New Zealand sites of interest.

Te Puna Web Directory
The National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa's comprehensive listing of New Zealand and Pacific Island web sites.

Fee Fie Foe Firm
This search engine allows you to search across law firm websites in New Zealand. It can be used to find anything that might appear on law firm websites such as legal news, articles, media releases, newsletters and profiles, amongst other things.

Back to top

Library catalogues

Auckland City Libraries
A searchable catalogue of all print, audiovisual and electronic materials held in Auckland City Libraries. Auckland Public Library members can also access the Digital Library which provides access to a wide range of databases including  law and business resources and New Zealand and international magazines and newspapers.

New Zealand public libraries
 A portal that provides links to all New Zealand public libraries that have websites.

University of Canterbury Library catalogue
Access to the Library catalogue through Webpac. Searchable database of all library holdings including the Law Library.

University of Otago Library catalogue
Access to the University of Otago's Library holdings, including the Law Library.

University of Waikato Library catalogue
Searchable database of the Library's holdings, including the Law Library. Searches can be limited by date, language and material type.

Voyager - University of Auckland Library catalogue
Catalogue of the University of Auckland Library holdings. Searching can be limited to a particular library i.e. Davis Law Library or by using specific details or keywords.

Back to top

© New Zealand Law Society 2008