THIS REALM OF NEW ZEALAND:

 

THIS REALM OF NEW ZEALAND:

THE SOVEREIGN, THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL, THE CROWN

Alison Quentin-Baxter and Janet McLean

Auckland University Press
RRP $65.00
Paperback, 240 x 170 mm, 368 pages
ISBN: 9781869408756

Ground-breaking analysis of New Zealand’s constitution that explains the continuing role of the

Sovereign, the Governor-General and the Crown in our South Pacific democracy.

New Zealand is a democratic constitutional monarchy, one of Queen Elizabeth II’s sixteen realms. This Realm of New Zealand provides a comprehensive account of how the Queen, the Governor-General and the Crown interact with our democratically elected leaders under New Zealand’s unwritten constitution. The authors explain how these islands in the South Pacific were first brought within Queen Victoria’s dominions, the arrangements then made for their future government, and how those arrangements developed over time with the pressure for democracy and responsible government to become New Zealand’s current constitution. In an afterword, the authors examine some of the key issues to be considered should New Zealand become a republic.

About the authors

Dame Alison Quentin-Baxter is a distinguished public and
international lawyer. She lectured in constitutional history and
law at Victoria University of Wellington and from 1987–94 she was
the director of the New Zealand Law Commission. Dame Alison
has acted as a constitutional advisor in New Zealand and other
jurisdictions including Niue, Fiji, the Republic of the Marshall
Islands, and Saint Helena. She was appointed a Dame Companion
of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the law, and is a
Companion of the Queen’s Service Order.

Professor Janet McLean is a professor of law at the University of Auckland where she teaches constitutional and administrative law. She is the editor of Property and the Constitution (Hart, 1999) and author of Searching for the State in British Legal Thought (Cambridge University Press, 2012) and has contributed numerous articles and chapters in leading books and journals.