Waitangi Tribunal

The Waitangi Tribunal ( Māori: Te Rōpū Whakamana i te Tiriti ) is a New Zealand Commission of Inquiry investigating the claims of Māori arising from the Treaty of Waitangi of 1840.

The Tribunal was founded in 1975 as a response to heaping accusations of Māori over the handling of the New Zealand State with their claims. The Tribunal may investigate claims of each Māori who complains about a government act or omission of an act. The Māori needs doing no legitimacy as a representative of a group, the Tribunal may, however, obviously reject unfounded claims equal.

Unlike a regular court, the Tribunal announced to a few exceptional cases no binding decisions, but can only make recommendations to. In fact, binding negotiations must perform with the Office of Treaty Settlements of the New Zealand State Māori. Should it be in the controversial area of privately owned land, there can be no present recommendations. An exception is the country in which it is memorialised lands - these are areas that have formerly been in the possession of a state-owned company or the New Zealand Railways Corporation and have a note that they at the direction of the Tribunal in state-owned or directly into possession Māori can go.

The inner end of the tribunal deviates in some points decisively from normality in the Anglo-American legal system from. However, it has the sole authority on the interpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi, in both its English and in the Māori version.

The Tribunal can do your own research and not rely solely on the facts submitted to it by the parties involved. Likewise, it can interpret its own rules very flexible and adapt according to the situation of the present case, and will draw on legal traditions of the Māori.