Māori Status in New Zealand Law · Consent Ledger · Part 52 · Licences and permits

Does applying for a government licence mean consenting to government sovereignty?

A licence application can subject the applicant and regulated activity to the rules of that statutory scheme. That is consent to participate under a particular regulatory regime, not ordinarily a general constitutional cession.

Licences and permits are often the strongest examples of genuine, deliberate participation in a regulatory scheme—but their legal scope still has to be kept exact.

When a person applies for a building consent, driver licence, food registration, firearms licence, resource consent or other statutory permission, the governing Act defines what activity is regulated, what conditions may be imposed and what enforcement consequences follow.

Consent has scope.Applying for a licence can amount to accepting the conditions lawfully attached to that licence and engaging a statutory regime. It does not follow that the applicant has signed away unrelated constitutional rights or consented to every exercise of Crown power.

Act performedApplication for statutory permission or licence.

Immediate legal effectBrings the application and, if granted, the licensed activity within the particular statutory scheme.

Consent actually evidencedAgreement to seek and use the legal permission on the terms lawfully attached to it.

Not established without express wordingGeneral consent to sovereignty or jurisdiction outside that regulatory subject matter.

The legal audit is therefore licence-specific: what did the applicant actually agree to, and what powers did Parliament attach to that licence?

Example statutory regimeBuilding Act 2004.

← Series index · Previous · Next →