In March 2008 I took up the position of Deputy Solicitor-General (Public Law) at the Crown Law Office in New Zealand. The Public Law Group encompasses legal advice to, and representation in court of, the Crown in the areas of: taxation and commercial law, and health, education, welfare and employment law. My most recent academic project was, as the 2005 International Research Fellow of the New Zealand Law Foundation (from July 2006 to February 2008) writing a book, The Treaty of Waitangi in New Zealand's Constitution and Law (Victoria University Press, Wellington, 2008). The book analyses the current meaning of New Zealand's founding document, and what is its legal status and force and its constitutional place as well as what they should be. The book was awarded the Legal Research Foundation's JF Northey Memorial Book award for the best book published in 2008 by a New Zealand based author. It is available for order at http://www.victoria.ac.nz/vup/2008titleinformation/thetreatyofwaitangi.aspx Comments or questions are welcome at Matthew.Palmer@aya.yale.edu
Articles
The Treaty of Waitangi in New Zealand's Law and Constitution, reviewed by Sir Edmund Thomas, New Zealand Law Journal (2009)
Sir Edmund Thomas, former judge of the New Zealand Court of Appeal and Supreme Court,...
Human Rights and Social Policy in New Zealand (with Claudia Geiringer), Social Policy Journal of New Zealand (2007)
This article aims to facilitate debate about the implications for New Zealand social policy making...
New Zealand Constitutional Culture, New Zealand Universities Law Review (2007)
This article takes seriously the relationship between culture and a constitution. It suggests that three...
Constitutional Realism about Constitutional Protection: Indigenous Rights under a Judicialized and a Politicized Constitution, Dalhousie Law Journal (2006)
This article assesses the comparative effectiveness of constitutional protection of indigenous rights in Canada and...
Using Constitutional Realism to Identify the Complete Constitution: Lessons From an Unwritten Constitution, American Journal of Comparative Law (2006)
This article offers a way of more fully understanding the nature of the United States...
Books
The Treaty of Waitangi in New Zealand's Law and Constitution (2008)
Part I of this book uses the approach of constitutional realism to examine the meaning...
Bridled Power: New Zealand's Constitution and Government (with Geoffrey Palmer) (2004)
Bridled Power, and its predecessor Unbridled Power, have provided a guide to New Zealand's constitutional...
Bridled Power: New Zealand Government under MMP (with Geoffrey Palmer) (1997)
This book outlines how New Zealand's constitutiona and government works. This comprehensive revision of the...
Book Chapters
"Resolving the Foreshore and Seabed Dispute", Political Leadership in New Zealand (2006)
There has been serious political and legal conflict in New Zealand in recent years between...
A Perspective on Balance and the Role of Law, Roles & Perspectives in the Law: Essays in Honour of Sir Ivor Richardson (2002)
This article examines the patterns discernible from the different areas of law examined at the...
"Constitutional Issues", Treaty of Waitangi (2002)
At the level of constitutional principle, the Treaty of Waitangi gives symbolic expression, at the...
The International Practice, Recognising the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (1998)
This chapter outlines how a "relationships" perspective of indigenous peoples and states, as offered in...
Collective Cabinet Decision-Making in New Zealand, Cabinet Ministers and Parliamentary Government (1994)
This chapter outlines the theory and reality of Cabinet Government in New Zealand at the...
Unpublished Papers
Constitutional Design and Law: The Political Economy of Cabinet and Congressional Government, J.S.D. Dissertation, Yale Law School. (1993)
The dissertation takes a political economy approach to constitutional design and legislation in the Westminster...
Presentations
Evidence to the Short Inquiry into Executive/Judiciary Relations, The Select Committee on the Constitution, House of Lords (2007)
On Wednesday 9 May 2007 I gave evidence to the House of Lords Constitution Committee...
The Languages of Constitutional Dialogue: Bargaining in the Shadow of the People, 2007 Laskin Lecture, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University (2007)
The 2007 Bora Laskin Annual Lecture at Osgoode Hall Law School analyzes law and policy...
What is Distinctive about Terrorism and Anti-Terrorism Law?, Raoul Wallenberg International Human Rights Symposium (2007)
Criminal offending and terrorist offending are similar in quality – the acts which constitute such...
Thinking about Law and Policy: Lessons for Lawyers, Crown Law Office & Law Commission (2006)
The paper outlines a simplified view of the paradigmatic approaches of the disciplines of law...