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Speeches and presentations
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The Maori Seats in Parliament
5 February 2009, Philip A Joseph
Separate Maori representation has routinely been trumpeted as a defining feature of our electoral system. So one would expect its introduction to have been on a considered and principled basis. But not so: four separate Maori electorates were introduced in 1867. Those seats were a temporary expedient, not a principled reform.
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Economics and Politics of Transition
12 January 2004, Roger Kerr
Speech by Roger Kerr to Mont Pelerin Society Special Regional Meeting, Sri Lanka
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'The Government's Role Is Whatever The Government Defines It To Be' Discuss
6 May 2003, Roger Kerr
A couple of months ago, the government committed over $5 million of taxpayers' money to regain the America's Cup. According to the Dominion Post of 4 March, the prime minister, Helen Clark, was asked whether the government should be financing a yacht race. She replied that "the government's role was whatever the government defined it to be."
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Judging the Judiciary
20 June 1998, Roger Kerr
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An Introduction to Professor Kenneth Minogue
6 April 1998, Roger Kerr
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Democracy and Economic Reform
10 December 1996, Roger Kerr
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MMP must mean Much More Progress
28 November 1996, Douglas Myers
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Appeals to the Privy Council
22 July 1995, Roger Kerr
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Reflections on Electoral Reform
22 June 1993, Roger Kerr
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Morality, Capitalism and Democracy
7 December 1992, Roger Kerr
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Books and reports
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Te Oranga o te Iwi Maori Working Paper 4: Te Puni Kokiri: The Ministry of Maori Development
20 November 2008, John Luxton
It is interesting in a public policy sense to review the various roles that have been given to the Maori portfolio of government over the last 160 years. Maori Affairs is one of the oldest of all government portfolios. Over time, the changing role of the portfolio has reflected the government approach to Maori issues. This paper looks at what role such a ministry might play in future.
NZ $12.50
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A Primer on Property Rights, Takings and Compensation
3 October 2008, Bryce Wilkinson
This report is motivated by the realisation that there is a need in New Zealand for a
wider understanding of the importance of security of all property rights for civil peace, prosperity, constitutional government, social cohesion and ultimately the democratic system. Respect for private property rights implies the need for restraint, both by governments and by lobby groups. Such restraint is necessary for a civil society, and the reciprocal obligations confer mutual benefits. Indeed, any rule that asks people to treat others as they would like to be treated themselves has these attributes.
NZ $22.50
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Te Oranga o te Iwi Maori Working Paper 2: The Maori Seats in Parliament
30 May 2008, Philip A Joseph
This essay advances four propositions: (a) the separate seats are unnecessary to
secure effective representation of Maori, (b) the seats entrench a form of historical paternalism that removes Maori issues from the mainstream political agenda, (c) the retention of the seats under MMP represents an insidious form of reverse discrimination and (d) the seats invite 'overhang' and the potential to undermine the expressed will of the people.
NZ $12.50
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Public Policy - An Introduction
2 August 2007, New Zealand Business Roundtable
INTRODUCTION
This paper is intended as an introduction to the topic of public policy. Contributing to
the development of good public policies for New Zealand is central to the mission of the
New Zealand Business Roundtable.
Good institutions and policies typically dominate other factors in determining the
economic performance of countries. Improvements to institutions and policies explain
much of the prosperity of Western nations since the Industrial Revolution and the rise of
countries such as China and India today.
New Zealand's earlier prosperity owed much to an environment of general economic
freedom and a generally observed rule of law. Its economic performance deteriorated
for much of the twentieth century with the adoption of policies that restricted economic
freedoms, and has improved in the past two decades as many of those mistakes were
corrected.
NZ $22.50
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Environmentalism versus Constitutionalism: A Contest Without Winners
8 December 2006, Suri Ratnapala
NZ $22.50
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What Do We Mean by the Rule of Law?
8 September 2005, Richard A Epstein
Introduction
'The rule of law' is at once one of the most persistent and mysterious phrases
in jurisprudence. I am not aware of anyone who is opposed to the rule of law.
Yet at the same time, it is difficult to find out what the cash value of the
concept is in helping to understand how best to fashion human relationships.
Often, the term operates as a catch-all for other conceptions of which the
relevance to political and legal theory is hard to define. One recent effort at
an account of the concept gives some idea as to the elusive nature of a
ubiquitous phrase. Thus, T R S Allan in Law, Liberty and Justice (Clarendon
Press, Oxford, 1993, p 21) suggests that, "the rule of law is an amalgam of
standards, expectations and aspirations: it encompasses traditional ideas about
liberty and natural justice, and, more generally, ideas about the requirements
of justice and fairness in the relations between government and governed". My
objective is to isolate the different senses that can be attached to the term in
order to give it some coherence and relevance.
One clue to the meaning of the rule of law is that it requires that there
be some sort of rules. These rules are not just generalisations about human
nature, but are often specific commands that a sovereign power issues to its
subjects, where the breach of a rule could invite the use of the full range of
legal sanctions. Accordingly, that concept does not make much sense in a state
of anarchy, or in a tribal or customary context. For its origins we have to go
back to early systems of sovereignty based on kinship and territorial control,
which were top-down systems, with one person at the top. That idea of
sovereignty deviates from the current view of political power that is based on
a strong belief in a democratic system of elections, a bottom-up view, which
is, historically, a relatively modern development.
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The Uses and Limits of Constitutional Arrangements
13 June 2005, Richard A Epstein
A risky comparison
The study of constitutional law often begins with a dispute between two
different versions of the relationship of the individual to the state. There are
those who think that atomistic individuals come together by a set of voluntary
contracts, and those who think that societies should be treated as though they
are complex organisms that cannot be understood simply as the sum of their
parts. In general, I think that these organic arguments can lead to heavily
collective institutions whose operations and ambitions I discuss. However, in
this case I want to examine the problem of the constitution as though it were
a study in social biology. I hope therefore to draw out comparisons of the
organisation of the human body on the one hand with those of the state on
the other. There are always dangers in making this transition, but the insights
that are garnered should be useful enough to make the risk worth bearing. I
begin with an account of the distribution of functions in the human body in
order to provide a template for understanding the organisation of other types
of system. From there, it is a simple progression to consider the workings of a family, a business and, finally, a state.
NZ $12.50
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The Foreshore and Seabed
29 March 2005, Richard A Epstein
Natural law and property
On my last visit to New Zealand in 1999 I spoke as an outsider to a sceptical
audience on how best to interpret the Treaty of Waitangi.1 I said that one of
the great challenges facing a country formed by successive waves of immigrants
is to put together disparate norms from rival cultures, each of which has its
own distinctive legal understandings as to how the world does or should work.
On that occasion I said that I would like to start from a neutral corner, and
then proceeded to address several Roman law analogues to the question of
prescriptive rights, largely on the basis that the great Roman authors were not
influenced by the future events that unfolded in New Zealand. On this occasion,
I plan to do likewise in discussing the foreshore and seabed. Rather than trying
to deal with this topic from the point of view of English law on the one hand
or Maori customary law on the other, I want to locate some kind of tertiam quid
- a third point - from which to begin the analysis. So for yet another time I
find an unexpected use of my training as a Roman property lawyer, which has
long augmented the English property law that I learned as a student at Oxford
many years ago. I also begin with the confession that, even after the advent of
law and economics, I remain much influenced by the writings of Gaius and
Justinian on the creation and organisation of property rights.
NZ $12.50
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The Role of the State in an era of Globalisation: The 2004 Sir Ronald Trotter Lecture
15 December 2004, Martin Wolf
Martin Wolf was the guest speaker for the 2004 Sir Ronald Trotter Lecture held in Wellington earlier this year.
NZ $12.50
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Lecture Takings, Givings and Bargains: Multiple Challenges to Limited Government
1 October 2004, Richard A Epstein
This lecture was given in
Wellington on 2 August 2004, under the auspices of the
Law and Economics Association of New Zealand.
NZ $12.50
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The Struggle for a Free Economy and Society in Russia: The 2000 Sir Ronald Trotter Lecture
25 October 2000, Yegor Gaidar
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MMP The Right Decision?
1 October 1999, Richard A Epstein
There is no summary available for this publication.
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Principles for a Free Society
1 August 1999, Richard A Epstein
There is no summary available for this publication.
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The Treaty of Waitangi: A Plain Meaning Interpretation
1 August 1999, Richard A Epstein
There is no summary available for this publication.
NZ $12.50
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The Modern Mask of Socialism: The 1998 Sir Ronald Trotter Lecture
1 December 1998, Antonio Martino
There is no summary available for this publication.
NZ $12.50
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Waitangi, Morality and Reality
1 April 1998, Kenneth Minogue
Professor Minogue's investigation of Treaty of Waitangi issues finds there is a considerable gap between the moral imperatives driving Treaty issues, and New Zealand realities. The book analyses the inevitable tensions between issues of justice, the economy, culture and democratic politics which must be carefully managed in advancing the Waitangi process.
NZ $24.95
incl GST
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Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Time for a Reappraisal
1 September 1997, Bernard Robertson
There is no summary available for this publication.
NZ $22.50
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Economics and the Judges: The case for simple rules and boring courts
1 June 1996, Richard A Epstein
There is no summary available for this publication.
NZ $12.50
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An Analysis of Proposals for Constitutional Change in New Zealand
1 September 1992, Penelope Brook Cowen, Tyler Cowen and Alexander Tabarrok
The authors analyse three reform proposals to the 1992 system of government: the replacement of the first-past-the-post electoral system with proportional representation, the reintroduction of a second chamber of parliament and increased use of referenda. The study assesses whether such reforms would improve the workings of government. The authors deliver a generally favourable verdict on non-binding citizens initiated referenda but oppose the other proposals.
NZ $33.75
incl GST
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Submissions
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Local Government Forum Submission on Auckland Local Government Bill
26 June 2009, Local Government Forum
The Local Government Forum welcomes the opportunity to make a submission on the Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill. Overall, the Forum supports the Bill's intent and recommends that it should proceed - subject to specific comments in this submission.
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Submission on the Foreshore and Seabed Bill
28 July 2004, New Zealand Business Roundtable
The foreshore and seabed should generally be publicly owned with open access, subject to existing private rights.
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Submission on Walking Access in the New Zealand Outdoors
25 November 2003, New Zealand Business Roundtable
The proposals discussed in the report entail a substantial erosion of private property rights which is detrimental to prosperity. Land-based industries, such as farming and forestry, and tourism are directly affected.
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Submission on the Resource Management (Energy and Climate Change) Amendment Bill
1 November 2003, New Zealand Business Roundtable
The measures in the Bill are inconsistent with the government's prime economic objective - securing faster economic growth.
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Submission on the Foreshore and Seabed of New Zealand
6 October 2003, New Zealand Business Roundtable
Property rights, including Maori customary rights, are at the heart of the issue of ownership of the foreshore and seabed.
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Submission On The 2003 Periodic Report On Retirement Income Policies
3 June 2003, New Zealand Business Roundtable
The only hope of achieving consensus and stability on retirement income is to build policies on a sound conceptual foundation. Policies in the recent past lacked such a foundation and proved unsustainable.
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Submission On The Supreme Court Bill
20 May 2003, New Zealand Business Roundtable
A change in New Zealand's final appellate court could have profound consequences for business and future generations of New Zealanders.
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Submission on Appeals to the Privy Council
1 April 2001, New Zealand Business Roundtable
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Submission to the MMP Review Committee
1 July 2000, New Zealand Business Roundtable
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Appeals to the Privy Council
1 July 1995, New Zealand Business Roundtable
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Submission to the Solicitor-General on appeals to the Privy Council
1 June 1995, New Zealand Business Roundtable
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Articles
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Political Shortcomings of MMP
14 October 2011, Roger Kerr
I would care less about the adverse economic consequences of our mixed member proportional (MMP) voting system, which were outlined in my last article, if they reflected the genuine democratic preferences of New Zealanders. They are unlikely to do so, however, because of the constitutional and political weaknesses of MMP.
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Judgment Day for MMP
30 September 2011, Roger Kerr
The importance of the referendum for the future prosperity of the country arguably dwarfs the outcome of the general election. The referendum will be held when the risks to global prosperity are the gravest since the Great Depression.
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The Case for Speeding Up the MMP Referendum
24 September 2010, Roger Kerr, Otago Daily Times
The select committee considering the bill to set up the referendum on the electoral system is due to report back to parliament next month.
It is important that parliament provides voters with the best possible process for deciding on this important issue.
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Achieving the Dream
17 January 2007, Roger Kerr
This article was first published in the Otago Daily Times (12 January 2007)
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Funding Political Parties: Not Ordinary Government Business
17 November 2006, Roger Kerr
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MMP Means Much More Paralysis
23 September 2005, Roger Kerr
Last week Alan Wood, one of Australia's most respected economic commentators, wrote in The Australian: "Predicting the outcome of New Zealand elections is particularly hazardous because it has the most absurd electoral system of any Western democracy, including Tasmania and the ACT."
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Regulation of Unlisted is Unwarranted
4 April 2005, Roger Kerr
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The Case for Flat Taxes
1 February 2005, Richard A Epstein
The flat tax is robust and unique, and outstrips its competitors in fairness and efficiency.
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In Economics Everything Takes Time
28 January 2005, Roger Kerr
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Reducing Barriers to Investment in Infrastructure
31 December 2004, Roger Kerr
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Competition Vital for Efficiency as Savings Debate Continues
19 November 2004, Roger Kerr
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Learning a Lesson in Welfare from the United States
5 November 2004, Roger Kerr
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The Fiscal Responsibility Act: A Stocktake After Ten Years
24 September 2004, Roger Kerr
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Is There a Problem With New Zealand's Management Capability?
27 August 2004, Roger Kerr
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Serving the Public, not Just the Politicians
13 August 2004, Roger Kerr
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Australia-US trade deal spells danger for New Zealand
13 February 2004, Roger Kerr
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Employment Law Changes a Blast from the Past
30 January 2004, Roger Kerr
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OECD Gives New Zealand a D Grade
22 December 2003, Roger Kerr
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) was, in its own words, set up "to achieve the highest sustainable economic growth and employment and a rising standard of living in member countries", while contributing to world trade and development generally.
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A country is not a company
8 December 2003, Roger Kerr
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Clock ticking on objectives
26 November 2003, Roger Kerr
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Competition shouldn't be incarcerated: The case for privately managed prisons
26 November 2003, Roger Kerr
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Economic freedom gains ground - but not in New Zealand
14 July 2003, Roger Kerr
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Productivity rises fatten pay packets
4 July 2003, Roger Kerr
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Groaning under a heavy burden
27 May 2003, Roger Kerr
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New Zealand Budget lacks a focus on growth
16 May 2003, Roger Kerr
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Will we get a Budget of substance?
14 May 2003, Roger Kerr
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Making sense of sustainable development
4 April 2003, Roger Kerr
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Getting back on the Australian radar screen
7 March 2003, Roger Kerr
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Should our land be sold to foreigners?
2 March 2003, Roger Kerr
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Making the boat go faster
10 January 2003, Bill Day
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Yes, we're small - so think big
1 January 2003, Winton Bates
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Kyoto ratification - another Kiwi own goal
10 December 2002, Dr Bryce Wilkinson
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ICT report lacks policy framework
2 December 2002, Roger Kerr
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Economic transformation: action is lagging behind words
29 November 2002, Dr Murray Horn
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Perspectives
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Issue 414 Thus Does the Economy Grow
25 November 2010, Keith Hennessey
The American people did not give power to congressional Republicans; they took it away from congressional Democrats. Republicans now have an opportunity to prove that they deserve majority status — that they can operate not just as an opposition party, but as responsible leaders who are willing to make hard choices and solve problems.
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Issue 406 I Can Afford Higher Taxes. But They’ll Make Me Work Less
21 October 2010, N Gregory Mankiw
AN important issue dividing the political parties is whether to raise taxes on those earning more than $250,000 a year. Democrats say these taxpayers can afford to chip in a bit more. Republicans say raising taxes on those who already face the highest marginal tax rates will hurt the economy.
So I thought it might be useful to do a case study on one of these high-income taxpayers. Fortunately, I have one handy: me.
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Issue 371 Australian Firms are at the Bottom when it comes to Female Representation
31 May 2010, Judith Sloan
A QUARTER of a century ago, it was not really surprising that there was only a handful of female directors.
But fast forward those 25 years, the participation of women in the Australian labour force has surged -- with the participation rate of women increasing by nearly 13 percentage points while the participation rate of men fell. And the educational attainment of women has outpaced that of men.
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Issue 366 Proportional Vote a Disaster
12 May 2010, Janet Albrechtsen
LAST week the Rudd government put a federal charter of rights in the reform rubbish bin. Progressives deplored the move. After all, their campaign for a charter was a first-order ideological fight. A charter would have enabled the Left to entrench an agenda of special interests that would have no chance of finding support under Australia's traditional Westminster democratic system. So that begs the question: what's next in the Left's bag of anti-democratic tricks? It's hard to imagine that the progressive disdain for Westminster democracy is suddenly at an end.
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Issue 365 Progressivisim Remains off Key
6 May 2010, Richard A Epstein
There is a delicious irony in the Center for American Progress choosing Tax Day, April 15, 2010, to publish its new defense of the progressive intellectual tradition in the U.S. The deep intellectual confusions of that movement are caught in its opening salvo, which quotes a famous aphorism of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes: “Taxes are the price that we pay for a civilized society.”
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Issue 349 Are Taxes the Root of Unhappiness?
26 February 2010, Allysia Finley
Does living in a blue state make people blue? It seems so, according to a new study in Science magazine that ranks states according to their happiness. The study finds that New Yorkers are the unhappiest people in America and their neighbors in Connecticut come in a close second, followed by Michigan, Indiana, New Jersey, California, and Illinois. And the happiest states? Drum roll, please…Louisiana, Hawaii, Florida, Tennessee, and Arizona.
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Issue 347 Dont Like the Numbers? Change 'Em
22 February 2010, Michael J Boskin
Politicians and scientists who don't like what their data show lately have simply taken to changing the numbers. They believe that their end—socialism, global climate regulation, health-care legislation, repudiating debt commitments, la gloire française—justifies throwing out even minimum standards of accuracy. It appears that no numbers are immune: not GDP, not inflation, not budget, not job or cost estimates, and certainly not temperature. A CEO or CFO issuing such massaged numbers would land in jail.
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Issue 341 The Spending ‘Freeze’ That Isn’t
2 February 2010, Edward P Lazear
In last night's State of the Union address President Obama proposed a three-year "spending freeze" on what amounts to one-sixth of the federal budget. Our biggest entitlement programs, Social Security and Medicare, would be excluded. These changes are optical rather than substantive. Given the spending agenda that is already in place, we can expect to see large increases in the proportion of GDP that is spent by our government for years to come.
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Issue 337 Boris Johnson on Proportional Representation
20 January 2010, Boris Johnson
Not since the waters retired from the face of the earth has this country seen such a display of protoplasmic invertebracy and as the dying days of Labour drag on you may find it hard to believe that any system could produce a government more feeble, more indecisive more racked by
internal feuding and division.
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Issue 332 Trust the Public on Climate Change
23 December 2009, Clive Crook
It is not enough for climate scientists and environment ministers to go to Copenhagen and tell each other how right they are. They also need to convince the public. National politics – the democratic process – is awfully inconvenient sometimes, but cannot be waved away.
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Issue 331 Why Opting Out is no "Third Way"
21 December 2009, Will Wilkinson
At first blush, "libertarian paternalism" seems a linguistic miscarriage, a self-crippling idea condemned to limp aimlessly in eternal darkness on the island of misfit creeds alongside "humanitarian sadism" and "color-blind racism." But that hasn't stopped Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein, law and economics superstars at the University of Chicago, from pushing the catchphrase and concept as a solution to the nation's problems for a half-decade now.
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Issue 296 What Happened to the 'Depression'?
4 September 2009, Allan H. Meltzer
Day after day, economists, politicians and journalists repeat the trope that the current recession is the worst since the Great Depression. Repetition may reinforce belief, but the comparison is greatly overstated and highly misleading. Anyone who knows even a bit about the Great Depression knows that this is false.
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Issue 295 The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare
2 September 2009, John Mackey
With a projected $1.8 trillion deficit for 2009, several trillions more in deficits projected over the next decade, and with both Medicare and Social Security entitlement spending about to ratchet up several notches over the next 15 years as Baby Boomers become eligible for both, we are rapidly running out of other people's money. These deficits are simply not sustainable. They are either going to result in unprecedented new taxes and inflation, or they will bankrupt us.
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Issue 294 PM's national broadband plan really is no net gain
28 August 2009, Chris Berg
Has there ever been a major Commonwealth program more hastily conceived than the national broadband network?
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Issue 291 Obama Needs a Move to the Middle
19 August 2009, Michael J Boskin
While strong recoveries sometimes follow deep recessions, historically recoveries following financial crises have been slow and painful. The specter of massive future tax hikes and inflation is worsening the outlook. We need a better, more coherent policy path back to a strong market economy-not to a European style social-welfare state, permanent government lifelines and stagflation.
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Issue 290 Creeping protectionism ushering in new era of de-globalisation? We hope not
14 August 2009, Alec Gelder
The current period of market stability--and even growth, at least in many global equity indices--might be driven by the government-led response to the financial crisis. But the long-term impact of these policies--especially the "buy local" schemes and the many other newly imposed tariff and non-tariff barriers that will restrict trade--could spell disaster for the global economy and usher in a new and far less prosperous era of
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Issue 289 If David Cameron wants to govern, he should stop being afraid of ideas
12 August 2009, Simon Heffer
You may recall the Beyond the Fringe sketch in which Squadron Leader Peter Cook tells Jonathan Miller, the doleful pilot, that he must set out on a doomed mission because "we need a futile gesture at this stage. It will raise the whole tone of the war".
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Issue 286 All Honor to Jefferson
29 July 2009, Jean Yarbrough
Instead of consolidating power or attempting to forge a general will, Jefferson went in the opposite direction, "dividing and sub-dividing" political power, while multiplying the number of interests and views that could be heard. He saw these units of local self-government as a way of bringing the large republic within the reach of citizens and so keeping alive the spirit of republicanism so vital to its preservation. And in this day and age, when the federal government seems to intrude on every aspect of our daily lives, and people feel powerless over matters of most interest to them, can we doubt that he was right? For this insight, too, let us echo Lincoln: "All honor to Jefferson"!
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Issue 263 Is the Bonus Tax Unconstitutional?
8 May 2009, Richard A Epstein
Bills now winding their way through Congress would tax between 70% and 90% of bonuses paid to any executive earning in excess of $250,000, if he or she is employed by a business that received more than $5 billion from U.S. bailout funds. With popular outcry at a fever pitch, too few Democrats and only some Republicans are prepared to stand up to this juggernaut.
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E-Connects
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Setting the Record Straight on Colorado's Taxpayer Bill of Rights
30 October 2009, J. Scott Moody and Barry W. Poulson, Ph.D
As time draws closer for Mainers to pass the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (Question 4) on November 3, the rhetoric from the opponents grows more detached from reality.[1] When discussing Colorado’s Taxpayers Bill of Rights, opponents use terms such as “devastating” to describe its impact on Colorado’s economy and government. However, an objective look at the data tells a much different story.
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