The Treaty of Waitangi settlement process in Maori legal history

This dissertation is concerned with the ways in which Maori legal traditions have changed in response to the process of negotiated settlement of historical claims against the state. The settlements agreed between Maori groups and the state provide significant opportunities and challenges for Maori communities and, inevitably, force those communities to confront questions relating to the application of their own legal traditions to these changed, and still changing, circumstances. This dissertation focuses specifically on Maori legal traditions and post-settlement governance entities. However, the intention is not to simply record changes to Maori legal traditions, but to offer some assessment as to whether these changes and adaptations support, or alternatively detract from, the two key goals of the settlement process - reconciliation and Maori self-determination. I argue that where the settlement process is compelling Maori legal traditions to develop in a way that is contrary to reconciliation and Maori self-determination, then the settlement process itself ought to be adjusted.;This dissertation studies the nature of changes to Maori legal traditions in the context of the Treaty settlement process, using a framework that can be applied to Maori legal traditions in other contexts. There are many more stories of Maori legal traditions that remain to be told, including stories that drill into the detail of specific legal traditions and create pathways between an appropriate philosophical framework and the practical operation of vibrant Maori legal systems. Those stories will be vital if we in Aotearoa/New Zealand are to move towards reconciliation and Maori self-determination. The story that runs through this dissertation is one of a settlement process that undermines those objectives because of the pressures it places on Maori legal traditions. But it need not be this way. If parties to the Treaty settlement process take the objectives of self-determination and reconciliation seriously, and pay careful attention to changes to Maori legal traditions that take place in the context of that process, a different story can be told -- a story in which Treaty settlements signify, not the end of a Treaty relationship, but a new beginning.