Review of Matthew SR Palmer and Dean R Knight, The Constitution of New Zealand: A Contextual Analysis (Hart, 2022)

• Date: 01 January 2022

Book Review

203

BOOK REVIEW:

Review of Matthew SR Palmer and

Dean R Knight, The Constitution of

New Zealand: A Contextual Analysis

(Hart, 2022)

Reviewed by W John Hopkins*

This book fi lls a significa nt and import ant gap in current pu blic law oerings in

Aotearoa Ne w Zeala nd. Since the pu blication of t he 4th and fin al edition of Bridled

Power (also co-author ed by Palmer),1 there have been no genera list texts publ ished

to provide a n overview of the New Zea land consti tution. As a resu lt, as Bridled Power

(last publ ished in 2004) has begu n to show its age, there has be en nowhere to turn

for an accessible a nd current u ndersta nding of t he New Zeala nd consti tutiona l

model. That un fortun ate lacun a has been remed ied by the public ation of thi s text

and as such it shou ld be warmly welcomed .

The text its elf, co-aut hored by Matt hew Palmer a nd Dean Knight, i s published

as part of H art’s Cons titut ional Syst ems of the World Serie s, which provide s

contextu al intr oductions to v arious (cur rently 30-plu s) constitu tions from acro ss

the globe. Th is work is thus i ntended to be ac cessible both t o local a nd overseas

readers wis hing to u ndersta nd the pecu liar ities of the con stitut ion of Aotear oa.

The explicit “cont extua l” approach of the ser ies encourage s contribut ing author s

to provide st udies on the constit ution “in action” rat her than the tex ts themselves.

The authors’ approa ch to the concept of “cont extua l” in their study of the New

Zeala nd constitut ion is made plai n very early on, w ith the firs t chapter explori ng the

concept of “constit utional realis m”. This is a refresh ing chan ge for a New Zeala nd

legal tex t, many of wh ich tend to lau nch into their c ontent with l ittle consider ation of

their theor etical base, general ly assuming a st rongly formalis t approach, although

not explicit in doi ng so and thus fai ling to recog nise alternat ives.

However, there are problem s with the t heoretica l approach ta ken. Fir stly, the

choice of term is a l ittle st range, perh aps, as alt hough the aut hors cite “const itutiona l

realis m”, linkin g direct ly to the re alist s chool so popula r in the Law Sc hools of

the United S tates, wh at they act ually des cribe is perh aps bett er understo od as a

function al definition of law, from whence t he realist school evolve d. In either case,

1 Matthew P almer and G eorey Pa lmer Bridled Power: New Zealand’s Constitution and Government

(4th ed, Ox ford Universit y Press, Oxford , 2004).

* Professor, Faculty of La w, University of Ca nterbury.