The ability of citizens to bring civil legal proceedings against the Crown and its servants is an important part of New Zealand’s constitution, and is protected by the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990. The Crown Proceedings Act 1950 is the...
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 July 2011
Last updated 28 September 2016
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 July 2010
Last updated 29 May 2015
The Judicature Act 1908 is over one hundred years old and has been amended many times. Many of the sections in the Act are outdated, and it contains “hidden” commercial law and judicial review provisions. The focus of the Law Commission’s...
Project status: Closed
Start date 13 May 2004
Last updated 11 May 2015
This project reviews existing rules providing access to Court records and developing principles to govern access to Court records, the retention and archiving of records. It considers the appropriateness of a single code providing rules for all...
Project status: Closed
Start date 03 March 1998
Last updated 11 May 2015
This purpose of this project is to advise whether compensation should be paid to those who have been wrongly prosecuted or convicted of an offence, and if so, to recommend a systematic basis upon which compensation may be determined and paid.
Project status: Closed
Start date 01 July 1996
Last updated 11 May 2015
The topic of this project has two related issues, each of fundamental importance to New Zealanders. One is whether New Zealand women are treated properly by the legal system. That raises in turn a second issue – whether the New Zealand citizen...
Project status: Closed
Start date 12 October 2007
Last updated 11 May 2015
This Act has not been reviewed for many years and is out of date in a number of respects. The Act covers a range of interests, including remuneration of the Governor-General, Ministers and Members of Parliament, which make independent...
Project status: Closed
Start date 10 December 2003
Last updated 11 May 2015
Covert filming of people in intimate situations raises a number of specific privacy issues. As a modern form of voyeurism it also has a sexual dimension. The issue intersects with a number of areas of law, including privacy and censorship as well...
Project status: Closed
Start date 01 July 1996
Last updated 11 May 2015
The purpose of this project is to give fuller effect to the principle that the State is under the law and to ensure that as far as practicable legal procedures relating to and remedies against the Crown (as representing the State) are the same as...
Project status: Closed
Start date 28 May 1986
Last updated 11 May 2015
This project examines and reviews: the language and structures of legislation; arrangements for the systematic monitoring and review of legislation; the law relating to the interpretation of legislation; and the provisions of the Acts...