Environmental regulation and reform in New Zealand

The published works focus on environmental regulation and reform in New Zealand. The underlying thesis of the works is the need for the development of a coherent legal framework for environmental law. They conclude that there is currently no coherent framework because the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA), the principal statute governing the New Zealand environment, is a framework statute that depends on subsidiary planning instruments being prepared or promulgated by the Minister for the Environment or by local authorities to complete the statutory architecture and provide guidance for the resource consent decision-making process. However, progress has been slow and only four national policy statements (NPS) and only five national environmental standards (NES) have been made operative to date; while at local government level, preparing regional plans remains optional outside the coastal marine area. This has left a policy vacuum that has resulted in considerable criticism regarding the operation of the statute. Additionally, New Zealand has a legal tradition that places greater emphasis on the public policy role of legislation than other comparable jurisdictions (e.g. Australia, United Kingdom, and USA), and its unicameral legislature has the agility to respond quickly to issues and enact amending legislation. As a result, the RMA has been the subject of continuous review and reform that has (arguably) revisited the same issues on multiple occassions due to poor issue analysis, 17 statutory amendments have been enacted since 1993, and further reforms are proposed. The works reflect this theme and have contributed to the knowlegde of the subject by focusing on areas of scholarship and research regarding the RMA reforms not covered by other academics, or by highlighting new perspectives on topics already covered by other academics (e.g. the effect of the property rights debate on conserving biodiversity, and merits review by the Environment Court).