Greetings from all of us at the Law Commission.

We hope the beginning of your year has been enjoyable and productive. We have a few updates for you as we head into the next quarter of 2025.

Shaping the Law

We make our recommendations for law reform to the government, but they also inform the broader public debate about the issues in question. Often, they continue to do so long after we have completed a review.

Politicians, public sector agencies, the courts, academics and the media often rely on our in-depth examination of the law’s impact on people and society alongside our recommendations for reform.

In the past year, our work has been mentioned 15 times in parliamentary speeches, in 41 articles in New Zealand legal journals and over 313 times in the media.

Since 2012, the senior courts have cited 214 different Law Commission publications in over 950 judgments. Some of our oldest publications are among our most cited, including Evidence (NZLC R55, 1999) (cited in 69 judgments) and Company Law: Reform and Restatement (NZLC R9, 1989) (cited in 39 judgments). One of our most recent publications, He Poutama (NZLC SP24, 2023), published 18 months ago, has already been cited 13 times.

Hapori Whānui me te Tangata Mōrea Nui | Public Safety and Serious Offenders: a Review of Preventive Detention and Post-Sentence Orders

We delivered our Final Report with our recommendations for reform to the Government on 19 March. The Report contains the Commission’s recommendations for reform of the law governing preventive detention, extended supervision orders and public protection orders. The report will be publicly available in the next few weeks, keep an eye on your inbox!

Hara ngākau kino | Hate Crime

In early February we published our Consultation Paper seeking views on the problems with the current law and how they should be addressed. The submission period closed on 13 March. We appreciate the time and effort of all the individuals and organisations who made a submission to us. We’ve also been holding face-to-face meetings with a range of stakeholders in this period. All the feedback we have received will help inform the policy development phase of our review. We plan to deliver our final report in mid-2026.

Ia Tangata | A Review of the Protections in the Human Rights Act for people who are transgender, people who are non-binary and people with innate variations of sex characteristics

We are currently working on our Final Report setting out our recommendations for law reform. We anticipate publishing in mid-2025. 

Ngā Huarahi Whakatau | Review of Adult Decision-making Capacity Law

In April last year we published our Second Issues Paper. We are now working on the Final Report of this project, which will be published later this year.