Constitution Act 1986

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Constitution Act 1986
Coat of arms of New Zealand.svg
Logo of the New Zealand Parliament
Public Act No. 1986 No 114
Responsible Ministry Ministry of Justice

Minister responsible for introduction		 Geoffrey Palmer
Royal Assent December 13, 1986
Force of law January 1, 1987
Last version May 17, 2005
Web link New Zealand Legislation 1986 0114

The Constitution Act 1986 , in German Constitutional Law of 1986 , is the currently valid law of New Zealand , which regulates the role of the sovereign , the executive , the legislative and the judiciary . Even if the law can be translated as a constitutional law, it does not constitute a constitution in the sense of the German Basic Law .

The Constitution Act 1986 is part of the constitution as a kind of declaration of principles. Other constituent elements are divided among New Zealand Laws, New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 , Electoral Act 1993 , Legislature Act 1908 , Official Information Act 1982 , Ombudsmen Act 1975 , Public Finance Act 1989, and State Sector Act 1988 .

The English laws such as the Magna Carta 1297 , the Bill of Rights 1688 , the Act of Settlement 1700 and the Imperial Laws Application Act 1988 as well as fundamental decisions of the New Zealand courts are also considered to be constitutionally relevant .

Constitutional reform

With the entry into force of the Constitution Act 1986 on January 1, 1987, the previously valid New Zealand Constitution Act 1852 was replaced. The new law stipulated that legislative power was now entirely in the hands of the New Zealand Parliament and that the UK Parliament no longer had any legislative influence over New Zealand.

The introduction to the law states:

" An Act to reform the constitutional law of New Zealand, to bring together into one enactment certain provisions of constitutional significance, and to provide that the New Zealand Constitution Act 1852 of the Parliament of the United Kingdom shall cease to have effect as part of the law of New Zealand. "

In German:

“ A bill to reform New Zealand Constitutional Law to merge certain provisions of constitutional importance into one law and to ensure that the New Zealand Constitutional Act 1852 of the United Kingdom Parliament ceases to function as part of New Zealand law. "

The Sovereign

With the Constitution Act 1986 , New Zealand declared that it would continue to recognize the British Crown as the supreme authority of the state and transferred its power to the Governor General of New Zealand , as the Crown's deputy. The governor general assumes representative tasks and is at the same time the chairman of the Executive Council constituted by Letters Patent , to which the members of the cabinet and all ministers outside the cabinet belong.

The Executive

This section of the law states that all ministers must be members of the House of Representatives . It describes the appointment and position of State Secretaries, the Attorney General and the Minister of Justice.

The Legislature

In this section it was stipulated that the House of Representatives and the Parliament in its form, function and purpose should remain unchanged as it was regulated in the New Zealand Constitution Act 1852 section 32. Furthermore, the law regulates the election of the Speaker of the House and the intervals at which a General Election (election) to the House of Representatives must take place.

In Part  3 Paragraph 15 of the Constitution Act 1986 it was finally regulated, and this was decisive for the further separation of New Zealand from the United Kingdom, that the New Zealand Parliament had the exclusive power to pass New Zealand laws and that the Parliament of the United Kingdom no longer had any influence on it New Zealand legislation should have. Further stipulations on this can be found in Section 5 Paragraph 26. The laws should, however, continue to gain force of law through the signature of the crown or its representative to the governor. It was also regulated that the parliament has control over the public finances of the country.

The Judiciary

In the only two-paragraph section, the position of the judges of the High Court was strengthened by stipulating that the judges cannot be removed or transferred by the governor-general or the crown and that their salaries cannot be reduced. Only the House of Representatives was granted the right to remove him from office in the event of misconduct by a judge.

history

In 1984 Prime Minister Robert Muldoon of the National Party caused a constitutional crisis after a lost election and the resulting handover of office to David Lange of the Labor Party . The reasons were a debt-ridden state treasury with high interest charges and an economic crisis in the country and Robert Muldoon's refusal to agree to the urgently recommended devaluation of the New Zealand dollar before the official business was handed over to his successor. He thus opposed a custom in New Zealand, in which, when there is a change of government, the outgoing head of government carries out the instructions of the new head of government until he is sworn in. So a constitutional crisis emerged from an economic and financial crisis. In addition, the Māori increasingly demanded their rights towards the crown and compliance with the Treaty of Waitangi .

It was a concern of the fourth Labor government (1984–1990) under Prime Minister David Lange and Justice Minister Geoffrey Palmer to carry out constitutional reform and parliamentary reform. The autonomy and responsibility of the executive and parliament should be strengthened, the processes in parliamentary everyday life should be modernized and the administration reorganized. The role of the speaker in parliamentary bodies has also been strengthened.

Geoffrey Palmer , Justice Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, was the driving force behind the constitutional amendment. Based on his experience with Muldoon, he put together a panel of experts whose task it was to examine New Zealand laws from a constitutional point of view and to make suggestions for changes to the constitutional laws in a final report.

In February 1986 the report of the Officials Committee on Constitutional Reform was presented to Parliament. Based on this, the Constitution Act 1986 was read in parliament in mid-1986 and was passed on December 13, 1986 by a majority of Labor and National MPs. The law thus came into force on January 1, 1987.

literature

  • Janine Hayward (Ed.): New Zealand Government and Politics . 6th edition. Oxford University Press , Melbourne 2015, ISBN 978-0-19-558525-4 (English).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Kenneth Keith : On the Constitution of New Zealand: An Introduction to the Foundations of the Current Form of Government . Cabinet Office , 2008, accessed June 7, 2015 .
  2. ^ A b John E. Martin : 3.3 Parliament . In: New Zealand Government and Politics . 2015, p.  143-144 .
  3. ↑ a b c d Constitution Act 1986 . New Zealand Legislation , accessed June 6, 2015 .
  4. ↑ Ryan Malone : 3.4 The Executive . In: New Zealand Government and Politics . 2015, p.  156 .
  5. ^ History of the Governor-General - Patriated . New Zealand History , July 14, 2014, accessed June 7, 2015 .
  6. ^ Matthew Palmer : Constitution - The rise and bridling of executive power . Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand , July 13, 2012, accessed June 7, 2015 .
  7. ↑ Janine Hayward : 3.2 The Constitution . In: New Zealand Government and Politics . 2015, p.  134-135 .