Award of damages to part-subsistence villagers in Papua New Guinea

One of the great challenges to Courts in civil claims is to award damages in an appropriate manner which as far as possible places the plaintiff in the position that he or she would be in but for the injury. The awarding of appropriate damages to a person leading a part-subsistence village lifestyle presents the Courts with a special challenge. This article considers the attempts that the Courts in Papua New Guinea have made to award appropriate damages to people living this lifestyle. The article attempts to bring together the common principles that emerge through the cases. It also outlines some of the important issues that still need to be addressed by the Courts to ensure that the actual needs of plaintiffs living in a village lifestyle are addressed

Delivering open access: from promise to practice

An anniversary issue of Ariadne commissioned articles to predict the landscape ten years ahead. This contribution concludes that Open Access is a battleground where a ragamuffin band of academics and librarians are challenging the imperial pomp of billion dollar global companies. In those terms the contest is both unequal and unwinnable, since too much inertia is built into the system. However, as the article tries to show there are powerful drivers and change agents in place - technology; the nature of research; Google; national interest - which coupled with the sheer bloody-mindedness and persistence of the proponents of open access will lead to its growth as the dominant form of scholarly discourse. Whether that scholarly discourse will still include the journal article as we know it is a much more difficult question

An awfully big adventure : Strathclyde's digital library plan

Describes how the University of Strathclyde is choosing to give priority to e-content and services instead of a new building

Book Review: Understanding commercial Law

This article reviews the book: “Understanding commercial Law”, by Philippa Gerbic and Leigh Miller

Magical urbanism:Walter Benjamin and utopian realism in the film Ratcatcher

Deploys Walter Benjamin to discuss fantastical representations of childhood and class in the film Ratcatcher

Challenges to legal education: The Waikato Law School experience

The experiences of the Waikato Law School especially from the viewpoint of challenges to legal education are discussed. The impact of the performance-based model of funding on the delivery of legal education at the Waikato Law School is highlighted

An account of the making of the Human Rights Amendment Act 2001

In this paper I want to address the relationship between policy and law through a discussion of the 2001 Amendment to the New Zealand Human Rights Act 1993. Discussions of justice often focus on analysis of court decisions or legislation. Legal policy is not often analysed or the process by which legal policy is formed and incorporated into the law. This paper is an attempt to try and fill that gap through a description of the process to enact the 2001 Human Rights Amendment Act. The narrative is based on my experience so it is acknowledged at the outset that others involved in the process may hold different views

Sharing the basket: Delivery options for Te Mātāpunenga

This chapter explores some of the options to achieve delivery of Te Mātāpunenga to these end users and briefly identifies some issues to be considered. Te Mātāpunenga has had a long gestation and has been the topic of discussion in some form or other at nearly every Advisory Panel meeting of Te Mātāhauariki Research Institute. Many of those discussions centred on the people who were going to use the material and how it was to be delivered

Book Review: The Treaty of Waitangi in New Zealand’s law and constitution

The Treaty of Waitangi occupies an unsettled place in New Zealand’s constitution, law and life. Although there is almost universal agreement that it is a foundation document, this is not reflected in the legal status of the Treaty, or necessarily in its treatment by government. The Treaty engenders strong emotions on both sides of the political divide. Many New Zealanders are ambivalent about it. For some, it is a private issue; for others, it is very public, and very political. Both the legal and constitutional status of the Treaty is uncertain and unsettled, and so is the question of who exercises public power in relation to it. Harris has described the Treaty as one ingredient of a ‘cauldron of quietly simmering constitutional issues’. In this well-researched book, Matthew Palmer confronts these issues head on, and argues his vision for settling the legal and constitutional position of the Treaty

From privy council to supreme court: A rite of passage for New Zealand's legal system

Professor Margaret Wilson, Professor of Law and Public Policy, Te Piringa - Faculty of Law, University of Waikato delivered the 2010 Harkness Henry Lecture. She spoke about the rite of passage for New Zealand's legal system from Privy Council to Supreme Court