Tikanga He Korowai Tawharau

• Author: Justice Christian Whata
• Position: High Court Judge
• Pages: 21-34

Tikanga He Korowai Tāwh arau21

TIKANGA

HE KOROWAI TĀWHARAU‡

*

Justice Whata is from Te Arawa, with primary aliation to Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti

Tamateatūtahi – Kawi ti and Ngāti Whakaue. He obta ined an LLB(Hons)from Auckland

University i n 1994 and an LLM (First Clas s) from Cambridge Universit y in 1996. He then

practised law, specialising in environmental, Māori and public law litigation. He was

appointed in 20 11 as a High Court judge in Ch ristchurch, resid ing there from 2012, befor e

returning to Auc kland in 2015. Justice Whata i s also a member of the faculty of Te Kura

Kaiwhakawā | Institute of Judicial Studies responsible for the Tikanga Programme. In

2021 Justice Whata was appointed to Te Aka Matua o te Ture : the Law Commission.

While there he help ed complete the Study Paper 24, He Poutama: Tikanga. He returned

full time to the Hi gh Court in September 2023 .

I. Introduction

The Māori philosophy of law, te maramatanga o ngā tikanga, was

sourced in t he beginnin g. From the kete of Tane it w as handed down

throug h precedent and pract ice of ancestors. L ike an intric ate tani ko

pattern, it was interwoven with the reality of kinship relations and

the ideal of balance for those within such relationships. It provided

sanctions against the commission of hara or wrongs which upset

that balance, and it es tablished rules for negot iation and agreement

between wha nau, hapu a nd iwi. It for mulated a cle ar set of rig hts which

… individu als could exercise in the c ontext of their responsibi lity to

‡A shelteri ng cloak.

*High Cou rt Judge. This pap er is inspired b y the speech I gave t his year at the A LAA confer ence.

In that spe ech, I spoke at len gth about t he writi ng of a Law Comm ission paper on w hich there a re

many diver se and divergent vi ews. The process under gone gave me an insig ht into the rigou rs

of academic st udy and the brut ality of academ ic peer review. I retreat t o the relative safe ty of

my judicia l bunker secure i n the knowledge t hat our legal aca demic communit y are rigorous ly

maint aining t he integri ty of legal d iscourse and p atrollin g the boundar ies of the law.