Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Preface
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Africa Children and Informal Justice Systems in Africa
- Africa The Law and the Protection of the Family in Sentencing Primary Caregivers of Children: Practice from a Few African Countries
- Albania Cross-Border Disputes over Child Custody and Access Rights and the ECtHR Jurisprudence in the Case of Albania
- Australia Greater Recognition of Adults as Individuals?
- Belgium Belgian Family Law Anno 2018
- Brazil The Necessary Subordination of the Interests and Commitment of Adults in the Construction of a Preventive Public Policy to Reduce the Sexual Vulnerability of Children in Brazil
- Canada Efforts to Address Intimate Partner Abuse and High-Conflict Custody Disputes in Canada
- China A Survey on the Intestate Succession Views and Relevant Habits of Private Entrepreneurs in Contemporary China and its Legislative Implications
- China Child Sexual Assault in China and Preventive Education
- England and Wales To Procreate, or Not, That is the Question
- Germany Law Reforms in Abundance
- Hong Kong Cutting Our ‘Children's’ Coats According to Our Cloth: Hong Kong Family Mediation Regarding Children's Arrangements in the Context of Culture and Law
- India Family Privacy in India
- Ireland Sheltering the Homemaker in Irish Family Law: Ireland's Failure to Evolve with the Shifting Social and Family Norms
- Italy Robots for the Family: Protection of Personal Data and Civil Liability
- Japan The Japanese Supreme Court should Promote Family Law Reform More Drastically
- Korea Recent Development in Korean Family Law: Best Interests of the Child, End-of-Life and Sexual Minorities
- Myanmar Marriage under Myanmar Customary Law
- New Zealand A Review of Relationship Property and the Māori Way of Life in Parenting Disputes: Changes Afoot
- Norway The Strengthening of Fathers’ Rights in Norwegian Child Law and Other Recent Reforms
- Papua New Guinea Child Welfare and Protection Law Reform in Papua New Guinea: A Critique
- Poland Supporting Elderly Persons in Polish Family and Succession Law
- Portugal Chronicle of a Legal Reform Foretold: The Shape of the Law to Come Regarding Incompetent Adults in Portugal
- Serbia The Case of ‘Missing Babies’ in Serbia before the European Court of Human Rights
- Singapore The Evolution of the Singapore Family Justice Courts: A Journey to Serve Families and Children Responsibly
- South Africa The Implications of Varying Statutory Minimum Age Thresholds for Child Consent in Respect of Minors Granted Majority Status Through Civil Marriage in South Africa
- Sweden, Norway and the USA Regulations of and Remedies for Corporal Punishment Against Children
- Index
New Zealand A Review of Relationship Property and the Māori Way of Life in Parenting Disputes: Changes Afoot
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 January 2019
- Frontmatter
- Preface
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Africa Children and Informal Justice Systems in Africa
- Africa The Law and the Protection of the Family in Sentencing Primary Caregivers of Children: Practice from a Few African Countries
- Albania Cross-Border Disputes over Child Custody and Access Rights and the ECtHR Jurisprudence in the Case of Albania
- Australia Greater Recognition of Adults as Individuals?
- Belgium Belgian Family Law Anno 2018
- Brazil The Necessary Subordination of the Interests and Commitment of Adults in the Construction of a Preventive Public Policy to Reduce the Sexual Vulnerability of Children in Brazil
- Canada Efforts to Address Intimate Partner Abuse and High-Conflict Custody Disputes in Canada
- China A Survey on the Intestate Succession Views and Relevant Habits of Private Entrepreneurs in Contemporary China and its Legislative Implications
- China Child Sexual Assault in China and Preventive Education
- England and Wales To Procreate, or Not, That is the Question
- Germany Law Reforms in Abundance
- Hong Kong Cutting Our ‘Children's’ Coats According to Our Cloth: Hong Kong Family Mediation Regarding Children's Arrangements in the Context of Culture and Law
- India Family Privacy in India
- Ireland Sheltering the Homemaker in Irish Family Law: Ireland's Failure to Evolve with the Shifting Social and Family Norms
- Italy Robots for the Family: Protection of Personal Data and Civil Liability
- Japan The Japanese Supreme Court should Promote Family Law Reform More Drastically
- Korea Recent Development in Korean Family Law: Best Interests of the Child, End-of-Life and Sexual Minorities
- Myanmar Marriage under Myanmar Customary Law
- New Zealand A Review of Relationship Property and the Māori Way of Life in Parenting Disputes: Changes Afoot
- Norway The Strengthening of Fathers’ Rights in Norwegian Child Law and Other Recent Reforms
- Papua New Guinea Child Welfare and Protection Law Reform in Papua New Guinea: A Critique
- Poland Supporting Elderly Persons in Polish Family and Succession Law
- Portugal Chronicle of a Legal Reform Foretold: The Shape of the Law to Come Regarding Incompetent Adults in Portugal
- Serbia The Case of ‘Missing Babies’ in Serbia before the European Court of Human Rights
- Singapore The Evolution of the Singapore Family Justice Courts: A Journey to Serve Families and Children Responsibly
- South Africa The Implications of Varying Statutory Minimum Age Thresholds for Child Consent in Respect of Minors Granted Majority Status Through Civil Marriage in South Africa
- Sweden, Norway and the USA Regulations of and Remedies for Corporal Punishment Against Children
- Index
Summary
THE NEW ZEALAND LAW COMMISSION'S REVIEW OF RELATIONSHIP PROPERTY
The New Zealand Government asked the New Zealand Law Commission (the Law Commission) (a body charged with carrying out research and consultation into areas of laws that potentially need reform) to carry out a review into relationship property law in New Zealand. As a result, the Law Commission produced a comprehensive Issues Paper which forms the basis for consultation and submissions on whether or not changes are needed to the law. This chapter will analyse four central issues pertaining to relationship property law: economic disparity, property held on trust, contracting out of the Property (Relationships) Act 1976, and children's interests in relationship property proceedings.
ECONOMIC DISPARITY
In 1976, New Zealand passed the Matrimonial Property Act 1976 (the ‘original Act ’). The original Act applied only to married couples, although there was debate at the time as to whether or not it should apply to de facto couples as well. The original Act was based on the principle that marriage is a partnership of equals, with each partner contributing in different but equal ways to the acquisition of what was then called ‘matrimonial property ’. The parties ‘home and family chattels were to be divided equally, no matter when they were acquired (whether before or after the marriage) unless extraordinary circumstances made equal sharing repugnant to justice, or in circumstances where the marriage was for less than three years in duration. Other assets acquired during the marriage also had to be divided equally, unless the contributions of one spouse were clearly greater than the other. The original Act set out the financial and non-financial contributions to a marriage in the following exhaustive list:
(a) The care of any child of the marriage or of any aged or infirm relative or dependant of the husband or wife:
(b) The management of the household and the performance of household duties:
(c) The provision of money, including the earning of income, for the purposes of the marriage partnership:
(d) The acquisition or creation of matrimonial property, including the payment of money for those purposes:
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- International Survey of Family Law 2018 , pp. 373 - 384Publisher: IntersentiaPrint publication year: 2018