This project reviews the law of succession. This is the law which governs how a person's property is to be dealt with when they die.
Our projects
Each project is an area of law or subject matter that the Law Commission has agreed to review. The Commission works on several projects at a time. Together, these projects make up the Commission's annual work programme.
Use the search filters below to find particular projects. For more information on how we work see how we conduct projects.
Project status
Areas of law
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Project status: Closed
Start date 01 September 1997
Last updated 11 May 2015
This project raises a question about a discrete aspect of the law of contract: whether or not to repeal the rules in the Contracts Enforcement Act 1956 that to be enforceable land contracts and guarantees must be in writing that is signed by the...
Project status: Closed
Start date 03 April 1998
Last updated 11 May 2015
This project examines and reviews the law relating the apportionment of civil liability. The measure we propose includes changes enacted for England and Wales in 1978 and first proposed for New Zealand in 1983. Our proposed statute will right...
Project status: Closed
Start date 06 May 1998
Last updated 21 August 2015
In October 1997 the Law Commission started a new project on the subject of international trade with the project’s first report, Electronic Commerce Part One: A Guide for the Legal and Business Community (NZLC R50) released a year later. This is...
Project status: Closed
Start date 01 June 1998
Last updated 11 May 2015
This project is a response to the Lange v Atkinson decision. Mr Lange, a former prime minister of New Zealand, claims damages for defamation from the author of an article published in a monthly magazine with a New Zealand-wide circulation and...
Project status: Closed
Start date 01 February 1999
Last updated 11 May 2015
The purpose of this project was to examine and review the Limitation Act, which lays down rules for determining the cut-off dates after which it is too late for an intending plaintiff to bring a civil claim. When the Government indicated it...
Project status: Closed
Start date 01 July 1999
Last updated 11 May 2015
The purpose of this project is to review the legal framework for adoption in New Zealand as set out in the Adoption Act 1955 and the Adult Adoption Information Act 1985, and to recommend whether and how the framework should be modified to better...
Project status: Closed
Start date 01 July 1999
Last updated 11 May 2015
The purpose of this project is to provide advice on whether existing classes of preferred creditors should continue to enjoy advantages over unsecured creditors when bankruptcy or liquidation intervened. The request for advice was made in the...
Project status: Closed
Start date 11 October 1999
Last updated 11 May 2015
The purpose of this project to consider whether Part II of the Wages Protection and Contractors Liens Act 1939 should be re-enacted in some modified form.
Project status: Closed
Start date 01 August 2000
Last updated 11 May 2015
In August 2000, we were asked, as part of the insolvency law review, to provide further advisory reports to the Ministry of Economic Development. The topics which we were asked to consider were:
(a) the role of the State in insolvency law...