TE PIRINGA FACULTY OF LAW
Indigenous Governance 2012 Outline
1.
Identification of Paper
Paper: LAWS 557
This paper carries 30 points
2.
Staffing
Valmaine Toki
(Lecturer/Convenor)
Phone: 4955
Room: G 72
email: valmaine@waikato.ac.nz
Availability: Mondays 1 – 2 pm or by appointment
3.
Description and Structure of Paper
(a) This paper will provide an overview of selected issues in the law relating to traditional valuesbased governance and mainstream good governance law, with an emphasis on Maori governance
law.
(b) Structure of the Paper
General
This is an intensive paper. The teaching component comprises of lectures:
Monday 27th, Wednesday 29th, Friday 31st August, Monday 3rd, Wednesday 5th and Friday 7th
September (10am-2pm each day). This is subject to change to accommodate possible
participation/attendance at the World Indigenous Lawyers Conference that will be held during
the same period.
4.
Learning outcomes
The objective is to provide students with an understanding of comparative indigenous
perspectives of governance and how they relate to the respective jurisdiction. Some emphasis will
be placed on Maori governance. Jurisdictional examples will assist to highlight the comparisons.
Students are expected to develop:
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a)
An understanding of “governance” and the “governance process” within selected
jurisdictions;
A critical appreciation of the importance of an indigenous lens; and
An ability to analyse and apply indigenous concepts of governance within the respective
legislative framework.
b)
c)
5.
Workload
Students should expect to spend 300 hours in total on this paper. In addition to lecture
attendance, significant time will need to be spent on background and complementary reading.
Students should allow for periods of more-focused research time in the preparation of
assignments and/or presentations.
6.
Required and Recommended Reading
All law students are required to purchase, for use in all law papers, a copy of McLay, Murray &
Orpin, New Zealand Law Style Guide, Thomson Reuters (2009). This is available from Bennetts, at
an approximate price of $18.90.

The Law School requires that students purchase the course materials book for this paper.
These are available from Waikato Print.
 Waka Umanga: A Proposed Law for Maori Governance Entities – NZLC R 92
This report is available for downloading from the Law Commission Website, or on desk reserve in
the library.

Additional reading materials may be required this will be notified during the course.
Further material may be provided on the paper site on Moodle (http://elearn.waikato.ac.nz), the
University of Waikato’s online learning system. Any such material is provided on the following
terms:
University of Waikato owns the intellectual property rights, including copyright, in and to this site,
or has acquired the necessary licenses to display the material on the site. As a student of the Te
Piringa Faculty of Law, you are granted a limited license to use (access, display or print a single
copy) the material from the papers in which you are enrolled for the purposes of participating in
the paper only, provided the information is not modified. Materials may not under any
circumstances be copied, stored, distributed or provided in any form or method whatsoever to
any third party. Any other use of the material is prohibited. None of the material may be
otherwise reproduced, reformatted, republished or re-disseminated in any manner or form
without the prior written consent of University of Waikato. To obtain such consent, please
contact the Te Piringa Faculty of Law.
7.
Online support
Online support for this paper is provided via Moodle.
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8.
Assessment
a)
Requirements for assessed work
School procedures for the presentation of course work are set out in the Te Piringa Faculty of Law
Graduate
and
Postgraduate
Handbook
which
is
available
from
http://www.waikato.ac.nz/law/graduate.
See also paragraph 12 below on referencing guidelines and plagiarism.
Assignment resources are available online at http://www.waikato.ac.nz/law/student/
b)
Coursework: Final Examination Ratio: 100/0
c)
Assessment Components
Component
Percentage of overall mark
Attendance and participation
Research Proposal and presentation
Research Essay
10%
20%
70%
Due date
Proposal due Friday 14th September
18th October
Students are expected to participate within class discussions and actively engage with the lecturer
and/or guest lecturer to share and/or faciltate their understanding of the course. Students are
encouraged to choose their research topic well in advance of their presentation and ideally to
have some idea before attending the course.
The class presentation will provide the student with an ability to speak to their topic and to
receive, from the class, helpful feedback and constructive critcism to assist the development of
their research proposal and research paper.
The research essay should accurately reflect the student’s ability to critically analyse and to
compare the meaning of indigenous governance within the respective jurisdiction/legal
framework.
d)
Handing in, marking time and collection
All assignments must be submitted electronically through Moodle (http://elearn.waikato.ac.nz).
See Te Piringa Faculty of Law Graduate and Postgraduate Handbook, available at
http://www.waikato.ac.nz/law/graduate. Where practical, it is the policy of Te Piringa Faculty of
Law to return marked work to students within five weeks of submission.
If you require assistance with Moodle, or encounter any problems, please contact the Help Desk.
You can send a message to Help Desk by using the instant message service in your paper’s
Moodle site (from the participants list within the People block). Alternatively, you can email them
directly at help@waikato.ac.nz or call 838 4008.
e)
Measurement of Achievement
Achievement in assignments and presentations will be measured in terms of levels of
understanding and knowledge gained, in terms of the originality and the sophistication of analysis
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provided, in terms of coherent and logical structure, and in terms of the fluency and accuracy of
expression and referencing.
f)
Management of assessment deadlines, process for requesting extensions and special
consideration, and for appeals
i)
Extensions
Students are required to complete and submit all internal assessment by specified dates. The
meeting of deadlines is a mark of professionalism and its enforcement is essential for fairness to
all students taking the paper. Handing in course work on or before the due in date also facilitates
the timely return of marked work by academic staff. Students should meet requirements as to
time deadlines for course work, or make a request for an extension or special consideration in
appropriate circumstances (see Graduate Programmes Manual available from the School of Law
Graduate website http://www.waikato.ac.nz/law/graduate/.) Failure to comply with
requirements as to the time deadlines for internal assessment without having successfully applied
either for an extension or special consideration with supporting evidence before the due date will
result in deduction of 2.5 marks for each day the work is late. Lateness of more than a week may
result in the work not being marked. No deadlines may be extended beyond two weeks after the
last teaching day of the semester(s) in which the paper is taught as final grades must go to the
Board of Examiners at this time. Unless an extension in writing has been granted, a lecturer may
refuse to accept a piece of work which is submitted after the specified date, and automatically
award it no mark, or may lower the mark as a penalty for lateness.
Applications for extension, on the form obtainable from the Resource Room, must be submitted
to the Convenor of the course. Extensions will be granted only on evidence of illness, family
bereavement, or serious personal accidents or circumstances. Please note that too many
assignments due at the same time is NOT an acceptable reason, neither are claims that
computers and/or printers have crashed). Account will be taken of the time in which the student
has had to complete the assessment before the supervening event occurred. It will be important
to consider if the grant of the extension will give the student in question an unfair advantage over
other students. A maximum period of 14 days will be given as an extension unless there are
exceptional circumstances. In determining applications the Convenor or lecturer of the relevant
paper may consult with the Chief Examiner or nominee.
ii)
Special Consideration
The Assessment Regulations 2005 as set out in the University Calendar 2012 list in detail the
university-wide policies and procedures, which apply concerning missed examinations, impaired
performance or impaired preparation time for an examination, and missed or impaired course
work. Students are responsible for ensuring that they comply with these regulations. Application
forms for special consideration for internal assessment are available from the Resource Room.
iii)
Appeals (University Calendar 2012, Assessment Regulations 2005, Reg. 24)
A student may appeal against any decision taken under these regulations.
An appeal, comprising a written statement of the circumstances of the appeal, together with
supporting evidence if available, must be submitted by the student in writing to the Director of
Student & Academic Services not more than seven days after the date on which notification of the
relevant decision is received.
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Appeals under this section are considered and decided by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor by
delegated authority of the Academic Programmes Committee.
A decision by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor is notified in writing, and is final.
9.
University Calendar Regulations and Policies
Your attention is drawn to the following regulations and policies, which are published in the
University Calendar 2012:
Assessment Regulations 2005
Student Discipline Regulations 2008
Computer Systems Regulations 2005
Policy on the Use of Māori for Assessment
Student Research Regulations 2008
Ethical Conduct in Human Research and Related Activities Regulations 2008.
10.
Links to other papers
This paper links with LAWS555, Indigenous Peoples and International Law, and with LAWS577,
Human Rights Law, as well as with Corporate Entities, Maori Land Law, Water Law, Environmental
Law, Treaty of Waitangi, and Nga Tikanga Maori.
11.
Fees
Refer to http://calendar.waikato.ac.nz/admission/tableoffeesandcharges.html.
12.
(a)
(b)
Referencing guidelines and caution against plagiarism
Referencing must be in accordance with the New Zealand Law Style Guide.
All written work submitted for the purposes of assessment must be your own work.
Copying or paraphrasing all or part of another person’s work, be it published or
unpublished, without clear attribution, is plagiarism. Plagiarism is misconduct and is dealt
with under the disciplinary procedures of the University as outlined in the Student
Discipline Regulations 2008 in the University Calendar.
“Plagiarism means presenting as one’s own work the work of another, and includes the copying
or paraphrasing of another person’s work in an assessment item without acknowledging it as the
other person’s work through full and accurate referencing; it applies to assessment presented
through a written, spoken, electronic, broadcasting, visual, performance or other medium.” See
section 3, Assessment Regulations (2012 Calendar)
Unless approved otherwise by the examiners of the papers concerned, a student must not submit
as assessment material that is substantially the same as material submitted as assessment for a
different paper.
(c)
The Te Piringa Faculty of Law’s policy regarding plagiarism is contained in the Te Piringa
Faculty of Law Graduate and Post-Graduate Handbook and the Te Piringa Faculty of Law
Graduate Programmes Manual, available from http://www.waikato.ac.nz/law/graduate/.
13.
Health and safety
The Law School’s Health and Safety representative is Ms Alison Saunders who is in Room Law G44
at ext 4167.
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14.
Class representation
At the commencement of the intensive, a class representative will be elected by the students in
Maori and Indigenous Governance. This representative is encouraged to communicate regularly
with the Convenor. Students in this paper are encouraged to liaise with their representative to
discuss issues of concern. Contact details for the Student Representation Coordinator, Academic
Services Division, are as follows: Samantha Whittle, Student Services, ext. 6264, CHSSG.25 email:
student.reps@waikato.ac.nz
15.
Complaints procedures
The brochure Student Concerns and Complaints Policy provides details of the University’s process
for handling concerns and complaints and is available from Faculty and School Offices, The
Gateway and Student Services Division and is contained in the Calendar 2011. See also the
document Student Support Structure at Te Piringa Faculty of Law, available from the Resource
Room.
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Lecture Schedule – see structure of paper:
Monday 27th, Wednesday 29th, Friday 31st August, Monday 3rd, Wednesday 5th and Friday 7th
September (10am-2pm each day).
Date
27 August
29 August
31 August
3rd September
5th September
7th September
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Introduction to course – Maori
conceptions of Governance
Indigenous conceptions of Governance
Case Studies – Hawaii, Canada, Tahiti
Case Studies - Aotearoa
Presentations
Maori Indigenous Lawyers Conference