Māori Status in New Zealand Law · Jurisdiction Ledger · Part 31 · Current law

What is the legal basis of criminal jurisdiction over a Māori person today?

Modern criminal jurisdiction does not depend on proving Māori British-subject status. The Crimes Act applies territorially to acts and offences within New Zealand, subject to specific statutory rules.

The current criminal-law starting point is territorial jurisdiction, not nineteenth-century subjecthood.

Part 1 of the Crimes Act 1961 says the Act applies to offences for which an offender may be proceeded against and tried in New Zealand and to acts done or omitted in New Zealand. Section 7 also deems an offence committed in New Zealand where a relevant act, omission or necessary event occurs here.

Ledger finding.For an ordinary offence committed in New Zealand, the Crown does not need to prove that the accused is Māori, a British subject, or descended from anyone who signed Te Tiriti. The statutory jurisdictional hook is principally territorial.

Jurisdiction claimed overPersons accused of offences triable in New Zealand.

Primary modern instrumentCrimes Act 1961, Part 1, especially ss 5–7, plus offence-specific enactments and criminal procedure legislation.

Māori-specific exemption?No general ethnicity-based exemption from criminal statutes of general application.

Separate Māori legal interestsTikanga may be relevant in particular contexts, but it does not generally displace the statutory criminal jurisdiction of New Zealand courts.

This means modern criminal jurisdiction rests on the territorial legal order. The historical question is how that territorial legal order became legally operative; it is not re-proved defendant by defendant.

Primary statuteCrimes Act 1961, Part 1.

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