Law subject guide: NZ legislation

This page is designed to help you find and use NZ legislation - chiefly statutes (acts) but also regulations.

If you have a full citation to a statute, you can

• find the full text of the statute
• find regulations made under the statute
• find cases on the statute
• find commentary about the statute
• find the bills and parliamentary debates that preceded the statute

If you don't yet know what statute(s) you are looking for, you can

• start with a secondary source, like Laws of New Zealand (subscription database)
• try full-text searching the statutes databases - only a good idea if you have distinctive search terms

Print sources are in the Law Library

• at and around Law KG 316
• sometimes also in looseleaf services - just ask

Online sources as below:

Print sources: the bound volumes of statutes (at and around Law KG 316) are annotated with references to regulations made under that statute. Regulations, now called Legislative Instruments, are red volumes and follow the statutes.

Online sources as below:

Print sources:

• use Butterworths Annotations to the New Zealand Statutes (Law KG323). The blue pages are arranged alphabetically by statute, with brief case notes under each section.
• try print indexes to law reports. They typically have a table of statutes judicially considered.

Online sources as below:

Print sources include:

• the table of statutes for the Laws of New Zealand (Law KG351 LD51)
• textbooks and looseleaf services - search the catalogue, check the Reserve lists, or just ask.

Online sources include looseleaf services (just ask) and:

You can find the bills and parliamentary debates that shaped a statute.

Print sources include:

• Hansard debates (at Law KG311; )
• Bills (at Law KG312)
• Parliamentary bulletin (at KG318.5), which has a really useful table giving you dates of bills and debates

The online equivalent of these sources is via the New Zealand Parliament site, under the Parliamentary business section.

from Summer Report on Monday 14 January 2013

Chris Bramwell takes us behind the scenes at Parliament to show us how the laws get made.

Duration: 9′54″

The snake pit, the mad house ... call it what you will, Parliament's debating chamber is where the business end of law-making takes place, Chris Bramwell takes us behind the scenes at Parliament. (8′43″)