It was inevitable. Sooner or later a boat filled with desperate people would set out from India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, whatever, for New Zealand. We have been “protected” to date only by an accident of geography–New Zealand’s relative distance. Australia has faced the problem for decades. A group of Sri Lankan poor (allegedly Tamils previously […]
Entries Tagged as 'Rights and Freedoms'
Klingon Cloaking Devices Unmasked by Boat People
July 15th, 2011 15 Comments
Tags: Human Rights · Rights and Freedoms · Sri Lankan Boat People
The New Zealand Association of Rationalist Humanists and the Privileging of Secularism
December 20th, 2010 189 Comments
The New Zealand Association of Rationalist Humanists (“NZARH”) has a statement of aspirational ideals for the New Zealand state on their website. Entitled “The Tolerant Secular State” it is anything but. The first two sentences of the document exhibit a confusion which is inherent throughout (and commonly found in discussions of church and state): “The […]
Tags: Doctrine of Religious Restraint · Free Exercise · Freedom of Religion · Harry Potter · Jurisprudence · Lord Voldemort · NZARH · Paul Rishworth · Religion in Public Life · Rights and Freedoms · Secularism · Steven Smith
Middleton Grange, Free Exercise and the Gay Rights Movement UPDATED
July 26th, 2010 284 Comments
Over at GayNZ.com’s Proclamations of the Red Queen blog, Craig Young is in a celebratory mood. Middleton Grange, a Reformed Evangelical Christian school has been forced by law to pay reparations and have their management undergo “human rights education” because they dismissed a netball coach on the grounds that he openly engaged in homosexual conduct. Middleton […]
Tags: Craig Young · Free Exercise · Freedom of Religion · GayNZ.com · Homosexual Conduct · Human Rights · Human Rights Commission · Middleton Grange · Rights and Freedoms
Can State Expropriation of Minerals be Justified? Part II
March 9th, 2010 6 Comments
In Can State Expropriation of Minerals be Justified? Part I, I set out a common law property rights argument drawing from the writings of jurists Blackstone and Locke as well as contemporary philosopher Ed Feser. I looked at what circumstances, if any, might justify the state taking of real property, looking specifically at minerals from […]
Tags: Case of Mines · Crown Minerals Act 1991 · Edward Feser · James Parcell · John Locke · Kevin Counsell · Lewis Evans · Neil Quigley · Property Rights · Rights and Freedoms · Sub-Soil Land Rights · Takings · William Blackstone
Can State Expropriation of Minerals be Justified? Part I
March 5th, 2010 22 Comments
New Zealand, like many nations, has a long history of the state taking real property, often without compensation. In this two part series I examine one sub-set of takings, minerals from the sub-soil of privately held property (although the argument herein could apply with equal force to any state taking). Drawing from common law, the […]
Tags: Crown Minerals Act 1991 · Edward Feser · John Locke · Property Rights · Rights and Freedoms · Sub-Soil Land Rights · Takings · William Blackstone
Property Rights: Blackstone, Locke and the Legislative Scheme Part II
February 19th, 2010 8 Comments
This two part series looks at the state of property rights under the current legislative scheme in New Zealand. Particularly I address attempts to suggest that the passage of Acts such as the Crown Minerals Act and the Resource Management Act have not significantly altered the common law concept of property rights and the claim […]
Tags: Crown Minerals Act 1991 · Property Rights · Resource Management Act 1991 · Rights and Freedoms · Sub-Soil Land Rights · William Blackstone
A common objection to belief in the God of the Bible is that a good, kind, and loving deity would never command the wholesale slaughter of nations. In the tradition of his popular Is God a Moral Monster?, Paul Copan teams up with Matthew Flannagan to tackle some of the most confusing and uncomfortable passages of Scripture. Together they help the Christian and nonbeliever alike understand the biblical, theological, philosophical, and ethical implications of Old Testament warfare passages.
Guest Post: No Official Religion in God’s Own?
April 6th, 2010 124 Comments
David Simpkin is a Hamilton based lawyer with an interest in church-state issues. He studied law at the University of Auckland and holds a BA majoring in history and political studies. David is married to Susan and has a infant son, Caleb. He attends Whitiora Bible Church in Hamilton. David writes: As a holiday weekend that coincides with […]
Tags: David Simpkin · Freedom of Religion · Guest Post · Human Rights Commission · Religion in Public Life · Religious History · Rights and Freedoms · State Religion