Glossary

casebook method

Tribunal inquiries generally follow the casebook method. This involves planning – as far as is possible – the research required for an inquiry and completing that research before hearings start. The completed research is then bundled together into volumes (collectively known as a 'casebook') and distributed to the lawyers representing the claims in the inquiry.

One of the aims of the casebook method is to shorten the hearing process by avoiding the need to undertake research once hearings have started. It also helps claimants to particularise (fully detail) their claims before hearings start, and it helps the Crown prepare its response to the claims.

combined record

For each claim it registers, the Tribunal sets up a record of inquiry (or record) to hold the documents that relate to that claim. Where the Tribunal conducts an inquiry into a group of claims, it usually combines all the records of inquiry of those claims into one record – the combined record of inquiry. When it does this, the Tribunal allocates the combined record of inquiry an independent Wai number that does not represent any individual claim. For example, Wai 1200 is the reference for the combined record of inquiry for the 170 or so claims that the Tribunal is inquiring into in the central North Island district inquiry.

Crown Forestry Rental Trust

Despite its name, the Crown Forestry Rental Trust is not a Crown agency. It is an independent trust that was established in 1989, as a result of an agreement between the Crown and Māori, to receive the rental proceeds from the licensing of Crown forest land. The trust uses the interest earned from the rentals to assist Māori to prepare and present claims to the Waitangi Tribunal. It also provides assistance for Māori to negotiate settlements with the Office of Treaty Settlements. The trust is the largest funder of research for Tribunal claims. More information about Crown Forestry Rental Trust can be found at its website.

Crown Law Office

The Crown Law Office is a Government department that acts as the Government's principal legal adviser. Lawyers from the office represent the Crown at Tribunal hearings and provide legal advice to the Crown in the course of settlement negotiations. More information about the role of the Crown Law Office can be found at its website.

interlocutory phase

The interlocutory phase is where the issues for a Waitangi Tribunal inquiry are particularised and refined. It commences once the casebook is completed and distributed. The process begins with clarification of the statements of claim. Once these are finalised, the Crown responds to the claims in a document called the statement of response. In this document the Crown will accept or deny the claims against it. The Tribunal then issues a statement of issues, which sets out the issues of contention between the claimants and the Crown. This document defines the issues to be considered in the inquiry. By working through this process, the parties and the Tribunal define a set of focused parameters for the inquiry and lay the basis for an efficient process.

judicial conference

A conference of parties or intended parties or their counsel presided over by a judge, directed to be held by a judge where there is an application for review.

At any such conference, the presiding officer may settle the issues to be determined, add or strike out parties, direct service, give directions as to statements of defence, require any party to make admissions in respect of questions of fact, fix a timetable for the filing of documents, require discovery, permit interrogatories, and give directions as to filing the record of any proceedings which are to be reviewed.

Legal Services Agency

The Legal Services Agency is another key stakeholder, providing legal aid to claimants for legal representation of their claims before the Waitangi Tribunal. Information about the Legal Services Agency can be found on its website.

mandate

A contract by which one person employs another in the management of his or her affairs.

mediation

The Tribunal may refer a claim to mediation. The mediator may be a Tribunal member, or any other suitable person. The mediator's duty is to use her or his best endeavours to bring about a settlement of the claim.

memorialised lands

Memorialised lands are lands owned, or formerly owned, by a State-owned enterprise or tertiary institution, or former New Zealand Railway lands, that have a notation, or memorial, on their certificate of title advising that the Waitangi Tribunal may recommend that the land be returned to Māori ownership.

Office of Treaty Settlements

The Office of Treaty Settlements is part of the Ministry of Justice and is the key Government agency involved in the settlement of claims. The office negotiates the settlement of historical Treaty claims on behalf of the Crown, and is responsible for the implementation of these settlements. It also runs the Government's protection mechanism for surplus Crown owned land, which mechanism includes the 'land banking' of certain properties for possible use in Treaty settlements. The office has published a booklet for claimants entitled Healing the Past, Building a Future: A Guide to Treaty of Waitangi Claims and Direct Negotiations with the Crown (also known as the ‘Red Book’). More information about the Office of Treaty Settlements can be found on its website.

raupatu or ‘raupatu element’ (Māori, confiscation)

Section 7 of the Waikato Raupatu Claims Settlement Act 1995 defines ‘raupatu’ as:

the confiscation of land in the Waikato claim area, and includes the related invasion, hostilities, war, loss of life, destruction of taonga and property, and consequent suffering, distress, and deprivation …

Te Puni Kōkiri

Te Puni Kōkiri, or the Ministry of Māori Development, is the Government's principal adviser on the Crown's relationship with iwi, hapu, and Māori, and on key Government policies as they affect Māori. Along with other Government departments and Ministries, Te Puni Kōkiri provides advice to the Government on Treaty issues. In particular, it advises the Government on the mandating procedure for the settlement of Treaty claims. More information about Te Puni Kōkiri can be found on its website.

urgent inquiries

The urgency procedure was introduced in the early 1990s to provide an avenue for claimants alleging that they were suffering or would soon suffer irreversible prejudice from a current Treaty breach. Urgent inquiries form an appreciable part of the Tribunal's business and take precedence over regular inquiries. In the last five years, two types of urgent inquiry have predominated. On the one hand, as the pace of progress towards negotiated Treaty settlements has escalated, so have the number of applications for urgent inquiry from claimant groups contesting the status, methods or outcomes of settlement processes. On the other, claimants have challenged current Crown policy or action in areas ranging from the specific and local to the nationally significant. Examples of the latter are rights to petroleum resources and the foreshore and seabed legislation.

In deciding an application for urgency, the Tribunal has regard to a number of factors. Of particular importance are whether:

• The claimants can demonstrate that they are suffering, or are likely to suffer, significant and irreversible prejudice as a result of current or pending Crown actions or policies.
• There is no alternative remedy that, in the circumstances, it would be reasonable for the claimants to exercise.
• The claimants are ready to proceed urgently to a hearing.