Dr James Farmer, a Queen’s Counsel, lays out the case against legalisation.
Read MoreThe cannabis referendum: the case against legalisation
Law
Labour Conference Delegates - check your hubris at the door
Labour head in to their annual conference this weekend, and their Party members are likely to be feeling pretty confident about their chances of returning to Government in 2020.
However, it would be smart for them to keep their hubris in check by taking a quick trip across the ditch, where the Australian Labor Party (the ALP) thought they would too romp home at their election.
Read MoreWell, that's just, like, your religion, man...
You can’t expect religious New Zealanders to embrace secular government while attacking them for making secular arguments in policy debates.
Read MoreLet's keep things in proportion, shall we?
Would permitting terminally ill people to obtain a consenting doctor's help to end their life really undermine our entire system of law? Yeah ... nah.
Grant Illingworth QC is concerned that if David Seymour’s End of Life Choice Bill is enacted, we somehow would be breaching the social contract on which our entire system of law rests.
Read MoreImagine a world of speech without rules ...
The ACT Party's "plan to protect freedom of expression" is long on aspiration, short on detail, and would usher in an extremely unpleasant society should it ever be put into place.
This morning I had a chat to RNZ’s Morning Report about the ACT Party’s “plan to protect freedom of expression”.
Read MoreJustice denied is not justice at all
Our Court of Appeal thinks that China's criminal justice system is so unsafe that it simply cannot try cases fairly - and our government ministers can't really trust China's promises that it will do better.
Read MoreDonation, deception and the limits of the law
Faced with substantial costs and waiting lists in fertility clinics, increasing numbers of NZ women are turning to ‘freelance’ sperm donors. Now some of them are complaining about the conduct of one of those donors. But is this a problem the law can fix?
Read MoreReeferedum thoughts
The Government's proposed model for the forthcoming referendum on marijuana legalisation isn't ideal. But the difference between it and the ideal really is pretty minimal.
Read MoreAs the bishop said to the minister ...
Brian Tamaki says he just wants to help male prisoners become better men. He's got a funny way of going about achieving that goal.
Read MoreThe case for allowing aid in dying in New Zealand
Parliament's Health Committee couldn't decide on any major changes to the End of Life Choice Bill. That doesn't mean, however, that it won't be changed.
Read MorePhysician, heal thyself?
Parliament's Justice Committee thinks it would be wrong for courts to force people to say sorry if they say untrue things about judges. So why should Parliament be able to force people to say sorry if they say untrue things about MPs?
Read MoreBanning Jordan Peterson book inconsistent, but not anti-freedom
Whitcoulls has caused something of a furore by taking Jordan Peterson's 12 Rules for Life off its shelves. How much should we worry when books start to be censored?
Read MoreIf Brenton Tarrant is a terrorist, why hasn't he been charged as one?
The person accused of the Christchurch mosque attacks, Brenton Tarrant, has been called a terrorist. Why then hasn't he been charged with being one?
Read MoreWhy we have a beef with the new anti-rustling laws, and perhaps you should too (1 of 2)
The Government has created 2 new criminal offences aimed at cattle rustling. These have been generally well received. But there are reasons to be concerned, both about the laws themselves, and about the process by which they were made. This post focuses on what’s concerning about that, and is followed by another questioning the changes themselves.
Read MoreWhy we have a beef with the new anti-rustling laws, and perhaps you should too (2 of 2)
The Government created new anti-rustling criminal offences by adding them late in the law-making process, bypassing the normal process for public consultation. This post raises questions about the merits of the offences.
Read MoreSimon Bridges, National and the Serious Fraud Office - what does it all mean?
The Police have referred their investigation into $100,000 in donations to the National Party to the Serious Fraud Office. It's hard to know just what that means, except that it's the quintissential political "bad look".
Read MoreIt is not contrary to reason to prefer the destruction of the whole world to the scratching of my finger
National's decision to collapse a select committee meeting to make some sort of point may or may not be good politics. But it is bad for our parliamentary processes and long term constitutional culture.
Read MorePeople of the same trade seldom meet together ... but the conversation ends in a conspiracy
If New Zealand's largest street gangs were to ever think about merging forces, it isn't the police they need to worry about. It's those bad hombres at the Commerce Commission ... .
Read MoreProtecting the umpire
Did you know that Parliament could imprison you for saying that Trevor Mallard is biased in favour of Jacinda Ardern over Simon Bridges? But it (almost certainly) won't.
Read MoreGavin Hawthorn: send him to (drug) court, but not to prison
Since Gavin Hawthorn was sent to prison for ten years in 2003, over 5,000 people have died on New Zealand roads - at an average of 360 a year. That's almost one a day. Commentators calling for him to be sent to prison again are missing the point.
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