Source: https://constitution-unit.com/2016/08/18/new-zealand-needs-a-new-written-constitution/
Timestamp: 2018-09-20 01:52:38
Document Index: 70740855

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 2', 'art 3', 'art 4', 'art 5', 'art 8', 'art 9', 'art 10', 'art 11', 'art 12', 'art 13', 'art 14', 'art 15']

New Zealand needs a new written Constitution | The Constitution Unit Blog
There has also been much academic and professional commentary on constitutional practice, all of it hard to find. Other than parts of the Cabinet Manual, which has no legal status, no attempt has been made to bring the sum of the parts together.
An interested person cannot find a clear and coherent statement of the whole framework within which political decisions are made. Surely this is not good enough in a modern, mature democracy? That is the conclusion Dr Andrew Butler and I have reached. So on 21 September 2016 our book A Constitution for Aotearoa New Zealand will be published by the Victoria University Press in New Zealand. It will be accompanied by a website at www.constitutionaotearoa.org.nz.
On publication date the website will contain the draft Constitution and the reasons why it should be adopted. We then plan to take submissions and feedback from the public and make adjustments before an attempt is made to have it considered further. We thought the recent referendum on the flag in New Zealand disclosed a taste for some constitutional dialogue.
In the development of this project we have derived much help from Professor Robert Blackburn QC and the project he led for the House of Commons that produced in 2014 the rich report, A New Magna Carta? Professor Blackburn also organised a seminar of constitutional lawyers to consider an early draft of ours in February 2016 and we found that extraordinarily helpful.
In this project we have not contented ourselves by simply writing down the existing arrangements in one place. We have made suggestions for change in order to bring the Constitution up to date as well to improve accountability. To give a flavour of the range of the project here are the major components of Constitution Aotearoa New Zealand:
Part 2 The Head of State
Part 3 The Government
Part 4 Parliament and the Legislature
Part 5 The Judiciary
Part 8 International Relations
Part 9 Defence and Security
Part 10 The Treaty of Waitangi
Part 11 The Bill of Rights
Part 12 Other State Institutions
Part 13 Integrity and Transparency
Part 14 Adoption and Amendment
Part 15 Emergencies and suspension of parts of the Constitution
The proposal does not provide for a second chamber in the parliament – New Zealand has been unicameral since 1950. But, in order to enhance parliamentary scrutiny of legislation, other measures are proposed.
In New Zealand there has been an unbroken practice since 1956 that certain provisions of the Electoral Act that are fundamental fundamental to democracy should not be changed without a referendum of the people or by a 75 per cent majority in the House. We extend this principle of entrenchment to the whole of the proposed Constitution. That is to say, the Constitution can be amended either by a referendum of the people or by a 75 per cent majority in the House of Representatives. A Constitutional Commission is proposed to review the document every 10 years.
It needs also to be appreciated that a written, codified Constitution cannot save New Zealand or any nation from political disasters. A constitution can restrain the use of power but it cannot prevent intolerance, bad behaviour or cynicism about government. Nor can it stop all abuses of power. And it is worth bearing in mind the warnings of a famous American, Judge Learned Hand who said:
While the written, codified Constitution we propose will be higher law, it does in the end give the last word to the House of Representatives where it can muster a 75 per cent majority in the House.
A Constitution for Aotearoa New Zealand, by Sir Geoffrey Palmer and Dr Andrew Butler, will be published in September. It is available to pre-order at this link.
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4 thoughts on “New Zealand needs a new written Constitution”
Bearing in mind the recent UK referendum on the EU, which had 52% voting for Leave on a 72% turnout, does your proposed constitution require any threshold for changes to the constitution through the referendum route?
Pingback: Draft Constitution for New Zealand proposed in new book | The Constitution Unit Blog
So they have a Constitutional Unit…. And do the people have any input into the formulation of this proposed Constitution and if not why not? If not then it will be the usual top down “rule”. Sovereignty lies with the people not with Parliament that feudal relic passed down from the colonial “mothership!