The Lore of the Judges: Native Land Court Judges' Interpretations of Māori Custom Law

Authors

  • M.P.K Sorrenson University of Auckland

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15286/jps.124.3.223-242

Keywords:

Māori customary law, New Zealand common law, Native Land Court judges, indigenous land rights, New Zealand land tenure judgments, historical legal practices

Abstract

The essay explores what I call the ‘lore of the judges’: the collective wisdom of the Native Land Court judges on Māori custom law, especially in relation to land. It is led by a comment by F.D. Fenton, the first Chief Judge, in his Orakei judgment, that the judges’ decisions should emulate those of English Common Law judges, and create a body of precedents recorded in ‘Year Books’ (or Minute Books). The paper examines how the judges’ interpretations and remoulding of Māori custom were eventually incorporated in New Zealand common law. It concludes by asking whether the judge-made law could be considered a Māori common law

Author Biography

M.P.K Sorrenson, University of Auckland

M.P.K. (Keith) Sorrenson, one of New Zealand’s leading historians, is the Polynesian Society’s 2015 recipient of the Elsdon Best Memorial Medal. His article in this issue is an expanded version of his presentation to the Society membership following his award. Currently Professor Emeritus, he taught for many years in the History Department at the University of Auckland. He was a long-serving member of the Waitangi Tribunal. He published his first essay—on the social and demographic effects of transactions in Mäori land—in the Journal of the Polynesian Society 59 years ago. That essay is included in a collection of essays on Mäori history, land and politics, Ko Te Whenua Te Utu: Land Is the Price: Essays on Mäori History, which was recently published by Auckland University Press (2015).  He also wrote Manifest Duty: The Polynesian Society over 100 Years (1992), a history of the Polynesian Society and the Journal, which was published as a Memoir 49 of the Polynesian Society.

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Published

2015-10-09

Issue

Vol. 124 No. 3 (2015)

Section

Articles

License

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The Polynesian Society
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