Māori Status in New Zealand Law · Modern Status Audit · Part 29 · 1986–1987
How did Treaty principles become enforceable in the ordinary courts?
Parliament inserted Treaty obligations into legislation. Section 9 of the State-Owned Enterprises Act 1986 then gave the Court of Appeal a statutory standard it could enforce in the 1987 Lands case; Huakina also treated the Treaty as relevant interpretive context.
The modern Treaty jurisprudence did not begin because a court suddenly declared the Treaty supreme law.
Parliament enacted section 9 of the State-Owned Enterprises Act 1986: nothing in that Act permitted the Crown to act inconsistently with the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi.
That provision supplied the Court of Appeal with a justiciable statutory standard in New Zealand Māori Council v Attorney-General—the 1987 Lands case. The court developed principles including good faith, active protection and an enduring relationship between Crown and Māori for the purposes of applying the statute.
In Huakina Development Trust v Waikato Valley Authority, the High Court also treated the Treaty as part of the context in which legislation affecting Māori interests could be interpreted, even though the Water and Soil Conservation Act did not contain an express Treaty clause.
Lands case
Express statutory incorporation made Treaty principles directly justiciable against Crown action under the Act.
Huakina
The Treaty could also inform statutory interpretation and relevant considerations in public law without becoming an independent power to invalidate Parliament.
This is the modern domestic bridge: Treaty obligations acquire legal force through statutes and common-law interpretive doctrine, rather than through a finding that Māori ceased to be citizens or reverted to a foreign nationality.
Primary statuteState-Owned Enterprises Act 1986, s 9.
Judicial historyCourts of New Zealand — Lands case and justiciable Treaty obligations.
High Court caseHuakina Development Trust v Waikato Valley Authority [1987] NZHC 130.