Guides & Resources
Understanding legal principles, your rights, and how the justice system works.
The Criminal Equation
An analysis of the criminal process as a structured equation — from foundational legal principles through prosecution, defence, and adjudication — illustrating why a criminal circumstance does not establish a criminal offender until the equation is lawfully completed.
Framework for a Criminal Investigation: COVID-19 Vaccine-Related Harm
Justice Watch New Zealand's framework outlining the legal and constitutional basis for a criminal investigation into COVID-19 vaccine-related harm — examining how the criminal law and law of evidence apply to circumstances where serious harm and death have occurred in association with state-directed public health measures.
Fitzgerald v R [2021] NZSC 131
New Zealand Supreme Court judgment confirming that sentences so disproportionately severe as to breach section 9 of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 (freedom from cruel, degrading, or disproportionately severe treatment) cannot stand. This case affirms that serious breaches of rights require effective remedies.
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
The full text of the ICCPR — the principal United Nations treaty protecting civil and political rights. New Zealand is a State Party bound by its obligations. The Covenant protects the right to life, freedom from torture, equality before the law, and the right to an effective remedy for rights violations.
Siracusa Principles on the ICCPR — Limitation and Derogation
The Siracusa Principles define the conditions under which rights under the ICCPR may lawfully be limited or derogated from — adopted by 31 experts in international law convened by the American Association for the International Commission of Jurists in 1984. A key reference for assessing whether state restrictions on rights are permissible.
Fitzgerald v Muldoon and Others [1976] 2 NZLR 615
New Zealand Supreme Court judgment holding that Prime Minister Muldoon's public announcement of 15 December 1975 — purporting to suspend the New Zealand Superannuation Act 1974 — was illegal as the exercise of a pretended power of suspending laws by regall authority, in breach of section 1 of the Bill of Rights (1688). A foundational statement of parliamentary sovereignty and the limits of executive power.
Magna Carta 1297
The surviving clause of Magna Carta 1297 (Imperial Act 29) as held in New Zealand law — providing that no freeman shall be taken or imprisoned, or be disseised of his freehold, liberties, or free customs, or outlawed, exiled, or otherwise destroyed, nor shall the Crown pass upon him or condemn him, but by lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land. Source: New Zealand Parliamentary Library.