These sources are for overseas visitors looking for New Zealand legal material.

1.  Auckland District Law Society
2. Wellington District Law Society   Both libraries supply research materials to overseas colleagues.
3. New Zealand compiled legislation
4. New Zealand annual legislation
5. New Zealand Government sources
6. Waikato University Law School directory of New Zealand case law resources.
   New Zealand case law sources
    
7. Commonwealth resources

Law Library Associations in other countries.

• AALL
• ALLG Australia
• BIALL The UK
• CALL Canada
• CARALL Caribean
• EU Europe
• International
• OSALL South Africa
• www.paclii.org

The term constitution derives from the Latin Langauge, referring to passing any important law, normally by the Roman emperor at that time. Later, the term became extensively used in canon law to indicate certain relevant decisions, mainly from the pope.

constitutional Principles

Basically, the term constitution refers to a set of Guideline rules and principles that set out the nature and extent of governments. Almost all constitutions seek to control and regulate the relationship between institutions of the state or crown, in a simple sense the direct relationship between the executive, legislature and the judiciary, but also the relationship of institutions within those branches. For example, executive branches can be divided into a head of government, governmental departments and ministries,agencies and other civil services. Almost all constitutions try to layout the relationship between individuals and the state, and to establish the broad rights of individual citizens. It is therefore the most basic kind of law of the territory from which all the other laws and rules are derived; in some cases constitutions of territories can in fact be called “Basic Law”.

Care of wikipedia A constitution is often protected by a legal body in each country with Title names, such as supreme, constitutional or high court. This court judges the compatibility of legislation with the provisions and principles of the constitution, which is termed “constitutionality”. Especially important is the court’s responsibility to protect constitutionally established rights and freedoms. In constitutions without the concept of supreme law, such as the United Kingdom constitution, the concept of “constitutionality” has little meaning, and constitutional courts do not exist. A “constitutional violation” is an action or legislative act that is judged by a constitutional court to be contrary to the constitution, that is, “unconstitutional”. An example of constitutional violation by the executive could be a politician who abuses the powers of his constitutionally-established office. An example of constitutional violation by the legislature is an attempt to pass a law that would contradict the constitution, without first going through the proper constitutional amendment process. >>>> more from wikipedia

Example Constitutions

• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution
• Constitution of the United States of America
• THE CONSTITUTION OF JAPAN
• Constitution of Australia – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• New Zealand Constitution
• Constitution of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico
• The EU Constitution
• CONSTITUTION OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
• The European Constitution
• Constitution of India — with all the Amendments
• Constitution of the Independent State of Western Samoa 1960
• COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA CONSTITUTION ACT
• Constitution Resource Center