Tikanga: Cases and Materials

Tikanga Maori is the first law of Aotearoa New Zealand, also known as Maori customary law. It has been defined as “Maori customary values and practices” and recent common law in has held that tikanga can be viewed as consisting of norms of behaviour which a hapu or iwi develop over time and which acquire such force that they are regarded by that hapu or iwi as binding”, giving it the status of being part of the mainstream New Zealand legal system.

The New Zealand Council of Legal Education (NZCLE) has mandated that, from 2025, the six New Zealand law schools will need to offer a compulsory law course on Tikanga Maori (Maori Laws and philosophy), and tikanga Maori will need to be incorporated into the existing compulsory eight or nine law courses.

The book is designed to make the teaching of tikanga Maori in law schools more efficient, by providing useful excerpts of the most important statutes and cases engaging tikanga Maori, that standalone without students needing to read the statutes and cases in full. The book interpolates discussion questions which can be answered based on the material provided in the book and a simple Google. This is an “access to learning” approach that includes everything a student needs in one resource.

Jayden Houghton (Rereahu Maniapoto) is a Lecturer and the Assistant Dean (Teaching and Learning) at the University of Auckland Law School.