Trusteeship and Maori Commons

Abstract

"In this paper we attempt to trace the precise legal distortions by which the New Zealand state created a 'commons problem' in the name of Maori tradition, and generated forms of 'trusteeship' which were applied only to Maori and had no precedent in English law. Such legislated 'trusteeship' has taken the form of 'incorporations', the Maori Trustee as a state office, and two types of trust: large regional Trust Boards and small hapu descent group trusts. Though Maori generally had little input into their creation, they have accepted all of these landholding and property-managing institutions and used some to rebuild the precolonial ideology of common property."