What Was That Thing You Said? The New Zealand Supreme Court's Vexing Vector Gas Decision

Abstract

This article examines what the authors consider “the worst decision handed down by New Zealand’s top court in the last quarter-century.” The authors defend their position by arguing that the Vector Gas decision represents a failure of the sort of judicial craft expected of judges sitting on a nation’s highest court, with specific regard to the Supreme Court's duty to act in a way that is helpful to the society over which it acts as a legal guardian.