The Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004 – Where to now?
Abstract The key objects of the 2004 Act were to: • vest public foreshore and seabed in the Crown; • protect public rights of access and navigation; • abolish the jurisdiction of the High Court and Mäori Land Court to investigate Mäori claims to the foreshore and seabed; • enable the High Court to issue territorial customary rights orders/customary rights orders, and • enable the Mäori Land Court to issue customary rights orders. Since its enactment the controversial Foreshore and Seabed Act has continued to attract much political attention but little judicial consideration. Even though at least two major coastal tribes have negotiated settlements under the Act, five years on there has yet to be a decision from the Mäori Land Court or High Court flowing from an application under the Act. A Ministerial Review was undertaken in 2009 and recommended that the Act should be repealed, and the process of balancing Mäori property rights in the foreshore and seabed with public rights and public
