DECLARATIONS

Declarations are a tool for clarifying legal issues, such as the existence or extent of a power or function, or the lawfulness of a plan or of a specific act or omission.  They can be very powerful as they tend to focus on matters of legal principle or interpretation and so have wide-ranging implications.

Examples of declaration proceedings that either both or one of Sally and Madeleine have worked on include:

• Declarations establishing that regional councils can control fishing activities for resource management purposes such as maintenance of indigenous biodiversity, including subsequent appeals to the High Court and Court of Appeal

• Declarations that a regional council was processing resource consents for intensive farming unlawfully

• Declarations regarding the correct interpretation of rules in the Mackenzie District Plan