He Pukenga Korero, Vol 4, No 2 (1999)

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Dual Justice: The Maori and the Criminal Justice System

Roy Perrett

Abstract


Kāore e rite ana tā te Māori tū i roto i nga tatauranga
taihara o Aotearoa. Ko tētahi o ngā kaupapa kua
whakaarahia ake e Moana Jackson (roia Māori), ko te
whakatū i te punaha ture taihara Māori motuhake hei
whakawā i ngā taihara Māori. E hāngai ana tēnei ki tā
te Tiriti o Waitangi i kī ai, arā te whakatau i te tino
rangatiratanga o te Māori- māna e whakahaere āna ake
kaupapa. Ki konei ka mau ngā uara me ngā tikanga o te
Māori kāore e tino kitea ana i tēnei wā i roto i te punaha
ture taihara o Aotearoa.
Kua puta ngā āwangawanga o ētahi ki tēnei kaupapa,
ā, i roto i tēnei tuhinga ka kiia kāore he take o ēnei
āwangawanga. Ka whakatakotohia he kōrero mō te tika
o te pūnaha ture taihara rua (arā, he pūnaha ture e taea
ai e te Māori te whakahaere ngā āhuatanga taihara e pā
ana ki a ia anō).

Māori are disproportionately represented in current
Aotearoa-New Zealand crime statistics. One recent
contraversial suggestion, particularly associated with the
Māori lawyer Moana Jackson, is that the New Zealand
criminal justice system should be reformed in various
ways to include the establishment of a separate criminal
justice system for Māori offenders. This would arguably
be in keeping with the promise of the Treaty of Waitangi
(the founding document of New Zealand), which
guaranteed the preservation of Māori tino rangatiratanga
-the right of Māori to determine their own internal affairs.
Such a separate system of Māori justice could then
incorporate various important Māori concepts and values
currently under-represented in the New Zealand justice
system. I seek not only to lay to rest some popular
misgivings about the moral permissibility of the whole
idea, but also to present a set of arguments for at least a
prima facie moral obligation to implement such a system
of dual justice (that is a system which gives Māori full
control over the response to criminal behaviour involving
Māori).

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