Natural Resources Law Commons^™

Adjucating Sustainability: New Zealand's Environment Court, Bret C. Birdsong

Scholarly Works

New Zealand's Resource Management Act of 1991 (“RMA”) placed the island nation on the world's cutting edge of environmental management by making sustainability the law of the land. The RMA also presents an opportunity to examine a less heralded New Zealand innovation in environmental governance: a specialized, expert court that is focused exclusively on resolving environmental disputes. The Environment Court is a critical institution in New Zealand's effort to move toward sustainable management of the environment. Exercising broad powers to review most of the fundamental issues arising under the RMA, the Court is the primary arbiter of whether activities and …