Māori law expert says tikanga progress in the judicial system is unstoppable

Mamari Stephens says it will take decades for the two systems to fuse together into Aotearoa-New Zealand law.

Māori law and tikanga expert Mamari Stephens says judges are looking at the application of ture-tikanga, or Māori law, in cases before them.

That trend is set to gather momentum from next year when the general principles and practices of tikanga Māori become a compulsory subject in law studies.

“There’s got to be some kind of understanding that tīkanga Māori is its own system and its own kind of relational basis. So you can’t just apply it willy-nilly to get people off stuff. There’s got to be some integrity and that’s going to take time to work out what integrity looks like,” Stephens says.

She says like the common law it will take decades for the two systems to fuse together into Aotearoa-New Zealand law – but that’s how it should be.

Victoria University of Wellington senior law lecturer Mamari Stephens

The Māori Law Society, Hunga Roia Māori, is defending the introduction of compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students.

King’s Counsel Gary Judd has asked Parliament’s Regulations Review Committee to veto the new course because he says it wasn’t properly regulated, and tikanga is a system of beliefs, not law.

But Māori Law Society president Tai Ahu says Judd’s position seems to be that only English law can be considered proper law.

“The common law continues to evolve, just like tikanga also continues to evolve – and it’s evolved in a direction that reflects Māori thinking. So it’s not something that needs to be scared about – although I recognise that for some it’s quite an intimidating prospect, but I’ve got faith in our democratic institutions and our judges to be able to cope with that,” he told Waatea.News.Com.

Gideon Porter, WaateaNews.com