New Zealand Law Review - Published Issues - 2015 - Issue 3

Issue 3
 

Table of Contents

  • Murder Most Foul: An Analysis of the Courts' Approach to s 104 of the Sentencing Act 2002
    By Tim Condor

    This article analyses all sentencing decisions applying s 104 of the Sentencing Act 2002 to serious murders. This section provides a mandatory minimum period of imprisonment for murders which include one or more qualifying factors and reflects an intention to provide longer sentences for the most serious cases of murder. This article sets out the way in which the different qualifying criteria have been applied in practice before considering the impact that the section has had on murder sentencing generally. The high volume of cases and the lack of discrimination between sentences indicates that the section has extended beyond its original intention and legislative intervention is required to limit the application of the section or to grant judges greater flexibility over final sentences.

     

  • Moral Involuntariness and the Defence of Compulsion in New Zealand: A Review of Akulue v R [2013] NZSC 88
    By Jesse Slankard

    In Akulue v R [2013] NZSC 88 the Supreme Court was asked to decide whether evidence of compulsion could be led by the defendant who said he had been coerced into offending by threats made to his family living in Nigeria. The Court excluded the evidence because it did not comply with s 24 of the Crimes Act 1961, which requires a threat of immediate harm from a person present during the commission of the offence. This article considers the Supreme Court's decision with reference to the law in comparable jurisdictions, including Canada where recognition of the principle of moral involuntariness has resulted in significant changes to the scope of the defence.

     

  • Designing an Automated Torrens System — Baseline Criteria, Risks and Possible Outcomes
    By Thomas, Rod; Low, Rouhshi; Griggs, Lynden

    This article is a continuation of a discussion of automation of Torrens regimes, introduced by the authors in [2013] NZ L Rev 227. In this article, the authors explore design constraints affecting automation of Torrens systems against the background of the three criteria previously developed to assess automation proposals: proof of identity (or name); proof of ownership; and proof of authority to deal. They then propose four different measures that may assist in moving any system towards full automation. The article concludes with a summary of seven propositions offered as guidelines to system designers and closes with the following question: if the outcome of automation transfers risk from the registry to conveyancers can that system still properly be considered Torrens in its nature?

     

  • Contract
    By Andrew Beck

    The Supreme Court has made significant contract decisions in the cases of Kumar v Station Properties Ltd,Gallaway Cook Allan v Carr and Kakara Estate Ltd v Savvy Vineyards 3552 Ltd. Regrettably, these decisions do not provide any confidence that the Court is providing uniform guidance in relation to construing contracts. The Court of Appeal has considered issues relating to undue influence, consideration, and contractual obligations requiring parties to cooperate, as well as claims for professional expenses as damages for breach of contract.

     

  • Evidence
    By Scott Optican

  • Resource Management
    By Kenneth Palmer

New Zealand Law Review Published Issues