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Earlier this week I was talking with someone about NZLII budgets and how it is a balancing act allocating resources to various tasks. She asked what I would do if I suddenly received a substantial amount of money and I said I could name up to 20 projects off the bat. So here goes
1. Put more resources towards the High Court and Court of Appeal backlog (between 40-50,000 decisions)
2. Got several thousand District Court decisions that would need assessing, scanning, loading
3. Guide to Social Security law a la our ACC guide - http://austlii.community/wiki/NZACCLawHbk/NZACCLawHandbook
2. Got several thousand District Court decisions that would need assessing, scanning, loading
3. Guide to Social Security law a la our ACC guide - http://austlii.community/wiki/NZACCLawHbk/NZACCLawHandbook
4. Same thing but for Tenancy law. I have been reluctant to have a database of Tenancy Tribunal determinations due to the non-suppression of these and the recorded mis-use of these decisions. Be wonderful if they could be supplied with non-offending tenant names suppressed
5. New Zealand Awards. This would be a very big project and would need substantial funding. It could be done if several of the larger law firms got together and chipped in some money. Think of the space it would save (these are the blue volumes). Any unions, MOBIE interested?
6. Government Gazettes. Expand the current coverage - http://www.nzlii.org/nz/other/nz_gazette/ We have most back to 1841 already digitized - just need the resources to do the metadata etc. Again, not cheap - but less expensive than another organisation trying to scan given we already have them
7. Russell - Rules under NZ Statutes. These are partly done actually, but, given the aforementioned need to balance resources, have not been finished.
8. A law firm posted for disposal the 16 vol set of Rules Regulations and By-Laws 1910-1935 - that might be good to get and do
8. A law firm posted for disposal the 16 vol set of Rules Regulations and By-Laws 1910-1935 - that might be good to get and do
9. Tai Whati. Need I say any more? I know a lot of users have asked us to do this one. I have permission from the Māori Land Court. Issue is I want to make it really usable. I have had the Digest of decisions ... to December 1958 ready to go for a long time now
10. Provincial Gazettes. Good way for Regional Councils to preserve their history. Any interest @DnCityCouncil @OtagoRC or others? Social historians really appreciate this material being available
11. If I was on a history / preservation bent then track down some of our older Tribunal/Court material from decision generators like the Waterfront Industry Tribunal, the Overtime and Shift Work Recognition Authority, State Services, Railways Industry Tribunal ...
Did we have a coal mines tribunal? Anyway, if anyone has any decisions from any of these weird and wonderful tribunals I would love to hear from you
12. Weird and wonderful courts like the Wardens Courts. How much fun would it be to track down and make available those decisions!
12. Weird and wonderful courts like the Wardens Courts. How much fun would it be to track down and make available those decisions!
13. Parliamentary Bulletin's progress of Bills pages going as far back as we can. (From the print bulletin).
14. The brown reprinted statutes series (still in boxes under my house)
14. The brown reprinted statutes series (still in boxes under my house)
15 and 16. Couple of databases putting together various government and government funded discussion papers and reports on particular topics - eg Penal Policy and Constitutional reform.
17. We have many disciplinary tribunals but it would be great for comparison on the way offences are regarded/ punished to have more - Accountants, Police Complaints/Conduct, Social Workers, Plumbers/Gasfitters (do not think I have any chance of getting them, they seem secretive)
18. Compendium of Case Notes of the Ombudsmen
19. More NZ journals. It only helps PBRF if things are more available and for now defunct journals, the linking between case law/legislation and journals could be helpful instead of users having to chase things down.
19. More NZ journals. It only helps PBRF if things are more available and for now defunct journals, the linking between case law/legislation and journals could be helpful instead of users having to chase things down.
So there are a couple of wonderful VUW law journals (hint hint VUW law followers that I have inquired about - eg Journal of Public and International law), NZ Journal of Industrial Relations, Resource Management theory and practice, Māori Law Review,
NZ Assoc of Comparative Law Yearbooks, Te Tai Haruru, - and I expect I have missed some excellent publications that deserve more visibility. VUW Criminology papers from the 1970's
20. I do have several piles (aka mountains) of older tribunal decisions like Planning Tribunal, Town and Country Planning Appeal Boards, ACC Review decisions (1977-79) - I think these predate the Appeal Authority?
At the moment we are working on the Māori Land Legislation manual, some 19th C Acts in te reo Māori. But if you can get us material (and even better, material plus funding to deal with that material) then we will fit it in.
And this list is not in order, just a gush of ideas
And this list is not in order, just a gush of ideas
You know, I knew as soon as I hit send I would remember another one - Practice Notes. Imagine having a nice easy place to look for all practice notes. Lawyer types - does this appeal to you? If so, you could make a targeted donation - mention in your email it is for this project
Argh - how could I have forgotten - get the jolly treaties databases fixed / up to date. Though to be honest this is not something I can do without technical help from the wonderful people @austlii so perhaps does not fit on this list. Depends what solution AustLII comes up with
