Legal Research in New Zealand focuses on the elements and sources of New Zealand law with emphasis on developing an efficient research methodology, and the skills for comparative assessment of alternative legal resources. There is also guidance to carrying out legal research involving other (especially related) jurisdictions.
Legal Research in New Zealand provides a detailed examination of the process of legal research. Aimed primarily for use by law students the book is presented in three parts:
• Part 1 sets the parameters of the process: defining legal research and presenting its typologies; identifying the main types of legal research methodologies; providing frameworks for undertaking the legal research process; examining the skills required; detailing the requirements for research integrity; and covering the practicalities of selecting a topic and refining a research question. • Part 2 addresses the fundamentals of dealing with legal information: the specialist nature of legal language; types and formats of legal information; how law libraries present legal information; and practicalities for searching in the online environment. • Part 3 provides guidance for specialist areas of legal research: Kaupapa Maori legal research; Maori and indigenous legal issues; law in other jurisdictions; public international law; historical legal research; and an introduction to the use of legal theory for legal research.
Legal Research in New Zealand explores various legal sources, how to find them and how to go about best using them in a practical and user-friendly style. It is a valuable resource for all students of New Zealand law.
Related Titles
Scragg, R. (ed) Legal Writing: A Complete Guide for a Career in Law (2014) Krever, R. Mastering Law Studies and Law Exam techniques (2014) Webb, D. Sanders, K., and Scott, P., The New Zealand Legal System: Structures and Processes, 5th edition (2010)
Mary-Rose Russell (BBibl (South Africa); LLB (Hons) (Cant); LLB (Zimbabwe); LLM (Hons) (Auck); Acc M LEADR) is a senior lecturer in the Law School at the Auckland University of Technology. She has practised as a barrister and solicitor in New Zealand and was admitted as an advocate in Zimbabwe. She is also a qualified law librarian. Mary-Rose teaches constitutional law, legal research methods, legislation and law making, and mediation and negotiation. Her main research interests are in the areas of public law and legal education.
She is co-author of The New Zealand Legal Method Handbook and co-editor of The Supreme Court of New Zealand 2004–2013.
Natalie Baird (LLB (Hons), BA, LLM (Columbia)) is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Law at the University of Canterbury. Her current research interests lie in the areas of international human rights, refugee law and Pacific legal studies. She is particularly interested in the domestic application of international human rights norms in the Pacific region. Natalie teaches International Human Rights and part of the Public Law, Bill of Rights and Immigration and Refugee Law courses. Before commencing her academic career, Natalie worked in the public service at the Crown Law Office, the Cabinet Office and the New Zealand Law Commission.
Allan Beever (BA, MA, PhD (Auck); MSL (Toronto)) is a Professor of Law at the Auckland University of Technology. A well-known tort lawyer and theorist of private law, he has also written or taught in the areas of contract law, the law of unjust enrichment, philosophy of law, comparative law and the philosophy of Immanuel Kant. He is the author of five books as well as numerous articles and chapters and has won a number of significant awards for his research, including a Major Research Fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust and a von Humboldt Research Fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. He has previously held positions at the Universities of South Australia, Ottawa, Southampton, Durham and Auckland and at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law.
Sara Roberts (BA (Cant); DipLibr (Victoria)) has worked at the University of Canterbury as a law liaison librarian since 2007. She currently works closely with students and academics, providing legal research assistance as well as teaching legal research skills at all levels. Her involvement with law librarianship has spanned 15 years, and has included roles in academic libraries, private law firms and the Parliamentary Library of New Zealand.
W John Hopkins (BA (Hons) (Strath); PhD (Sheff); PGCert (Cant)) is Associate Professor at the School of Law at the University of Canterbury and a public lawyer whose areas of interest lie in the fields of comparative, European and international law. In 2012 he was a New Zealand Fulbright scholar teaching International Law and Global Governance at the University of Georgetown, Washington DC. John has published in a range of subject area in the field of public law with a particular focus on the non-judicial aspects of administrative law. He is currently working on a major project examining these institutions in New Zealand.
Abby Suszko (LLB, BA (Hons) Māori Studies, PhD (Otago)) is a Lecturer at Aotahi: School of Māori and Indigenous Studies, University of Canterbury, where she teaches about the Treaty of Waitangi in New Zealand society, Māori and Pasifika perspectives of justice, Māori and Indigenous Peoples development and contemporary interactions with nation states, as well as kaupapa Māori research methodologies. Her research focuses on theories of equality and rights employed in contemporary debates around Indigenous Peoples' claims to natural resources.
She is co-author of Butterworths Student Companion: Resource Management (LexisNexis, 2013) and a contributor to Māori and Mining (Māori and Mining Research Team, 2013).
Linda Te Aho (LLB (Auck); LLM (Dist) (Waikato)) is of Ngāti Korokī Kahukura and Waikato-Tainui descent. An Associate Professor at Te Piringa Faculty of Law, University of Waikato, Linda researches and teaches Māori and Indigenous legal issues. In 2015 Linda was appointed to the Ministerial Advisory Group on Te Ture Whenua Māori 1993 (the Māori Land Act), and commissioned to provide expert advice on the proposed reforms to the Resource Management Act 1991. Linda was appointed by her iwi of Waikato-Tainui as a guardian mandated under the 2010 settlement for the co-management of the Waikato River ecosystem to develop the long-term vision for its holistic restoration. Linda provides specialist advice on Treaty of Waitangi claims and post-settlement governance issues to iwi and hapū organisations.