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Enriching the Law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2008

Dame Silvia
Affiliation:
This article essentially reproduces Dame Silvia Cartwright's opening address to the Conference of the New Zealand Law Librarians Group at Christchurch on 18 October 2000.

Extract

What is the law other than a collection of rules intended to guide human coexistence and to govern society? Some of society's rules derive from an earnest desire to improve the lot of the public. Others simply atempt to constrain antisocial behaviour or codify exixting customs, some good, some bad. So in a few modern Muslim societies, ancient rules about the proper form ofdress for women are enforced as strictly as those intended to prevent and punish criminal behaviour. And until quite recently, although not imposed so strictly, similar customs applied here: wearing of hats in Church, medieval dress for nuns and 17th century wigs and gowns in court. Other laws regulate without a moral imperative: traffic regulations and limits on noise spring to mind. Some laws attempt to control commerce and are a mix of the regulatory and moral.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The British and Irish Association of Law Librarians 2001

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References

1. GA res. 48/121 1993.

2. GAOR 21 st Sess. Res. 2200A.

3. GAOR 21 st Sess. Res. 2200A.

4. International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, 21 December 1965.

5. Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, 28 July 1951.

6. Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment, I December 1984.

7. Convention on the Rights of the Child, November 1989.

8. R v Kirifi [1992] 2 NZLR 8. R v Butcher [1992] 2 NZLR 257. R v Goodwin [1993] 2 NZLR 153.

9. R v Boigent [1994] 3 NZLR 647.

10. Article 37.

11. Article I.

12. General Recommendation no 10 (eighth session, 1989)