This article, by the person who was the Minister responsible for the introduction and passage of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990, reviews 25 years of experience New Zealand has had with the legislation. The NZ Bill of Rights Act does not constitute higher law or occupy any preferred...

This article discusses the debates in New Zealand concerning extensive amendments to the Resource Management Act 1991 and other inquiries into natural resources and environmental law in New Zealand. It criticises the Government's proposed reforms but suggests directions that change could take....

The article describes the world-wide efforts or the lack thereof to combat climate change in the last 25 years. The article asks whether the world has to wait until the adversity actually sets in before effective action is taken; whether the failure to act is caused because people have not yet...

The following is a revised version of the second Woodhouse Memorial Lecture given at both the Victoria University of Wellington and the University of Auckland in September 2018. It traces the history and policy iterations of New Zealand's accident compensation scheme that flowed from the 1967...

An address to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs on 16 August 2010. The address provides an overview of International Whaling Commission negotiations, a proposal to cap whaling over a period of 10 years, and of an application brought by Australia in the International Court of...

An address to Whale Watch Kaikoura on 18 May 2010. The address provides an overview of a proposal before the International Whaling Commission to cap whaling over a period of 10 years and its implications for conservation and IWC productivity

An address at the International Whaling Commission’s Meeting of the Small Working Group in Florida, United States, 2 March 2010. Sir Geoffrey Palmer was the chairperson of the Small Working Group, which was set up in an attempt to produce a consensus settlement of the problems besetting the...

An address at the meeting of the International Whaling Commission, held at Madeira, Portugal, in June 2009. The address considers the International Whaling Commission’s progress as at 2009 and areas for improvement in years to come

An address at the Open Day at Frank Kitts Park to celebrate the Gentle Giants of the Ocean on 15 December 2007. The address considers Japan’s exploitation of the scientific research provision in the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling

The opening speech to the Symposium on the State of Conservation of Whales in the 21st Century, delivered at the United Nations Headquarters, New York, 12 April 2007. Sir Geoffrey Palmer was the Chair of the Symposium, which was held with a view to resolving what was at the time an impasse over...