Legal Reinforcement .... #203

The Supreme Court sits in Wellington. The Court is to get a new $67millon home to be built beside, and to expand into the historic High Court building, located near Parliament, although the court is being housed in temporary facilities while the new building is built and the High Court building refurbished. This is the early stages of construction ... the fabrication of the steel reinforcement ... although the construction worker appears extremely strong .. he is actually guiding the steelwork that is being lifted by a crane.

To the left of the photo is the Old Government Building, now part of the Victoria University Law School. The Supreme Court of New Zealand is the highest court in the land and the court of last resort in New Zealand, having formally come into existence at the beginning of 2004, and sitting for the first time on July 1, 2004. It controversially replaced the right of appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, based in London. It was created with the passing of the Supreme Court Act 2003, on October 15, 2003.

It is no relation to the "old" Supreme Court, which was renamed in 1980 (as the result of a Royal Commission recommendation) as the High Court in anticipation of the creation of a court like the one that now bears its former name.

Controversy
Although proposals for an indigenous final appellate court can be traced back to 1985, the creation of the Supreme Court was controversial. The Supreme Court Act 2003 was passed by a relatively small margin - the governing Labour and Progressive parties, supported by the Greens, voted in favour, while the National, New Zealand First, ACT, and United Future parties voted against.

Referendum
After the Opposition parties unsuccessfully called for a national referendum on the matter, they launched a petition for a non-binding referendum of their own. However, the petition failed to gain the 310,000 signatures needed. The legal profession in general were opposed to the creation of the new court, and members were generally concerned that such an important legal change was forced through in the face of heated opposition.

Appointments
One issue that was particularly contentious as the Bill was being debated in Parliament was the appointment of judges to the Court, with opposition parties claiming that the Attorney-General, Labour's Margaret Wilson, would make partisan choices. These concerns were because the entire bench was to be appointed simultaneously, and no clear statement had been made about how they would be selected. However, the level of concern was considerably lessened when Wilson announced that the appointments would be based on merit and seniority. Nevertheless, the issue of appointments still lingers; while the appointment of Justice McGrath was expected and unsurprising (McGrath and Anderson being the most senior judge on the Court of Appeal at the time of their appointments) whether future appointment will follow the same pattern remains unclear