There has been little scholarly research into the use of primary or secondary authorities by the New Zealand courts. This article examines the extent of and the reasons for the citation of five highly regarded textbooks by the New Zealand Supreme Court and the New Zealand Court of Appeal in the 10 years from 2012 to 2021. Further, it looks at citation by those courts as a measure of academic prestige.

The Building (Earthquake-prone Buildings) Amendment Act 2016 was enacted to address the issue of seismic vulnerability amongst existing buildings in Aotearoa New Zealand. This Act introduced a mandatory scheme to remediate buildings deemed particularly vulnerable to seismic hazard, as recommended by the 2012 Royal Commission into the Canterbury earthquake sequence of 2010– 2011. This earthquake-prone building (EPB) framework is unusual internationally for the mandatory obligations that it introduces. This article explores and critiques the operation of the scheme in practice through an examination of its implementation provisions and the experiences of more recent seismic events (confirmed by engineering research). This analysis leads to the conclusion that the operation of the current scheme and particularly the application of the concept of EPB vulnerability excludes large numbers of (primarily urban) buildings which pose a significant risk in the event of a significant (but expected) seismic event. As a result, the EPB scheme fails to achieve its goals and instead may create a false impression that it does.

In this article the author explains the scope of the general anti avoidance rule provided for by s BG 1 of the Income Tax Act 2007, with a particular focus on the recent decision of the Supreme Court in the Frucor case, in which he gave the reasons of the majority.