The Treaty of Waitangi and its principles – an analysis of select Waitangi Tribunal jurisprudence

Intern

Evy Elliot, Ngāi Tahu, Te Arawa, University of Otago

Supervisor

Mihiata Pirini, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Whakatōhea, University of Otago

The internship is provided as part of the prestigious NPM Borrin Foundation Legal Research Internship award.

Overview

Public sector decision-makers have access to a vast body of Waitangi Tribunal reporting on environmental, social and cultural matters of enormous significance to Māori, and to the Māori-Crown relationship under the Treaty of Waitangi. But there have been few attempts to collate, distil, and disseminate this jurisprudence in an accessible form, despite its huge value. Te Puni Kokiri’s guide to Treaty principles, He Tirohanga o Kawa ki te Tiriti o Waitangi, is now twenty years old. The Crown has access to internal summaries of Treaty jurisprudence organised according to Treaty principles, but these are out of date and not widely circulated. 

The objective of this internship project was to make aspects of the rich body of Waitangi Tribunal jurisprudence more accessible, especially to public sector decision-makers working in policy development. 

The intern reviewed and analysed key Tribunal reports, with a particular focus on the way the Tribunal identifies and balances underlying interests at play. Accessible guidance that describes and analyses how the Tribunal has undertaken this process across a variety of contexts was created. This guidance enables decision-makers to deliberately and carefully consider how they might do the same, within their own particular policy context.