Welcome to New Zealand's Lost Cases Project

New Zealand lawyers have discovered the importance of legal history, but many of the cases that have shaped New Zealand law, lawyers and even history remain hidden or lost in the archives, judges’ personal papers or old newspapers. Not only are they unavailable except to specialist historians, records of those cases are in danger of literally turning to dust in archive boxes.

The project involves the systematic search for, and collation of, early New Zealand cases. These cases exist, not in published form, but in manuscript collections, archives, judges’ notebooks and libraries. Many of these cases have been simply forgotten. While New Zealand had comparatively good early law reporting, only a selection of cases were formally reported. Consequently, many important decisions lie awaiting to be recovered. The project is primarily concerned with Native Land Court, Supreme Court and Court of Appeal decisions up until 1883.

There are three searchable databases - the source database which shows where court records can be found around New Zealand, the case database that reproduces the actual cases and the Native Land Court database that reproduces select decisions from that court.

The project website also includes a series of relevant Ordinances and Acts from the 1840s and 1850s. These are available for download in PDF.

New Zealand's Lost Cases Project is funded by the New Zealand Law Foundation. The Project is also overseen by a Reference Group, composed of eminent persons from New Zealand and overseas.