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Book Review: NAN SEUFFERT, Jurisprudence of National Identity. Oxford: Ashgate, 2006, 170 pp. ISBN 9780754646181, £50 (hbk)

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
Date01 December 2009
DOI10.1177/09646639090180040703
Published date01 December 2009
AuthorVito Breda
Subject MatterArticles
/tmp/tmp-18HEVHI5PgqdYx/input BOOK REVIEWS
567
NAN SEUFFERT, Jurisprudence of National Identity. Oxford: Ashgate, 2006, 170 pp.
ISBN 9780754646181, £50 (hbk).
In a relatively short period of time, debates over the role of national identity in modern
legal systems have moved from a discussion over the formal recognition of sub-state
national identity to the substantive accommodations of their claims. Jurisprudence of
National Identity analyses the historical development of this process in New Zealand.
By adopting a historical methodology Nan Seuffert develops a series of parallel
reviews of the concepts of legality, identity and gender. At its heart, the book is
concerned with the process of reconciliation of these three elements in a legal system
still tinted by colonial imperialism. The book is divided into three substantives parts.
The first is rich and articulated while the last two are less compelling.
The first part holds that the official interpretations of the Treaty of Waitangi which
de facto created New Zealand as an independent legal system have relegated the Maori
to a role of second-class citizens. The recent judicial attempt to recover from that
inconvenient past gives an insight into the inherent limitations of a judicial system.
Seuffert’s case law review is illuminating and her contention has general valence. She
explains that a judicial attempt to engage the New Zealand past cannot redeem the
act of deception that provided the basis for the creation of New Zealand’s legal
system. More generally her critical argument is that case law might be the catalyst for
democratic engagement and the conveyer of political capital, yet its formal structure
reduces its role as multiethnic political mediator. In Chapter 3, Seuffert reinforces her
contention by considering the colonial marriage law. Again her critique is powerful
and convincing. The corollary that emerges from her analysis is that the instrumental
use by the judiciary of the dual regime for Maori and the newcomers policy had
adverse...

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