22 In   the   result,   deconstruction   demonstrates   that   all   texts   are   open   to   many conflicting meanings.  It does not demonstrate that they are meaningless.  Applied in  a  legal  context,  deconstruction  leads  to  the  inference  that  whatever  legal interpretation  is  adopted,  it  is  due  to  something  outside  the  text.    This  has  led many  critical  legal  studies  adherents  to  use  the  techniques  of  deconstruction  to uncover conflicts that are hidden by conventional legal discourse.    23 I do not wish to turn this lecture into a disquisition on legal philosophy, but I do think that post-modernism has had, and will continue to have, an important effect on our legal institutions: post modernists tend to believe there should be as little law  and  legislation  as  possible  since  they  are  sceptical  that  law  can  achieve anything.   Even though it has manifest and serious defects, the theory undermines trust in the institutions of the law, its effectiveness and its legitimacy.  It leads to a pragmatic, short-term approach.  Post-modernism may be in the process of being replaced by pragmatism, with which it has some affinities.¹⁴ 24 Post-modernism will have its strongest effects on statute law.  Massive amounts of  law  are  made  in  New  Zealand  every  year,  of  which  primary  legislation sometimes  does  not  produce  the  greatest  bulk.    Today,  New  Zealand’s  primary laws  comprise  nearly  1100  statutes;  1096  to  be  precise.    We  had  only  600 principal  Acts  in  1978.¹⁵    Under  the  authority  of  today’s  Acts  there  are  4292 instruments   published   in   the   statutory   regulations   series.   There   exist   also, according   to   Parliamentary   Counsel   Office   website,   273   sets   of   “deemed regulations”; this last number, the site warns us, may be incomplete.  How many pages of law this amounts to I cannot say because it is too big a job to count.  The largest statute we have – the Income Tax Act 2004 covers 2088 pages and takes three volumes of the 2004 statutes.  There were seven volumes that year.    25 This  proliferation  of  forms  of  lawmaking  poses  problems  in  itself.    But  it  also poses significant problems for the system of Government as a whole.  It makes it                                                  14   Posner, above n 11, 10. 15   Kenneth  Keith  “A  Lawyer  Looks  at  Parliament”  in  John  Marshall  (ed)  The  Reform  of Parliament:  Contributions  by  Dr  Alan  Robinson  and  Papers  Presented  in  his  Memory Concerning the New Zealand Parliament (New Zealand Institute of Public Administration, Wellington, 1978).   9