Public Law Toolbox, 2nd Edition, is an indispensable resource enabling business people, lawyers, industry associations and non-governmental organisations to deal successfully with government.
All New Zealanders have to interact with government in some capacity. But not all citizens and businesses know how to work successfully with government, or how to challenge government decisions on administration or policy, or parliamentary decisions on law making, which detrimentally affect them.
There is an entire “toolbox” of public law mechanisms that sits alongside traditional commercial law remedies. This book describes the tools available and how to use them for greatest effect; assisting those wanting to influence policy and law reform issues for business, not-for-profit organisations or democratic reasons. It also assists those wanting to resolve disputes concerning administrative and government decision-making, and advises businesses on how to use the toolbox to resolve disputes with competitors. The book will also be useful for government and officials to understand their legal, transparency and accountability obligations and the risks that they face, taking political and public opinion factors into account.
ABOUT MAI CHEN
Mai Chen is a founding partner of Chen Palmer New Zealand Public and Employment Law Specialists, voted New Zealand’s top public law firm in the New Zealand Law awards six times since 2007. Mai holds Adjunct Professorships in Commercial and Public Law at the University of Auckland Business School and Faculty of Law. She has particular expertise in constitutional and administrative law, judicial review, regulatory issues, and public policy and law reform. Mai was the inaugural chair of NZ Global Women, and is the current chair of NZ Asian Leaders. She was a Top 10 finalist in the New Zealander of the Year awards in 2013, and has been in the 50 Top NZ Influencers list of the Listener and Unlimited magazines.
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Chapters: 1: Public law toolbox | 2: Trust in government, accountability and transparency 
3: A road map for dealing with government | 4: How government works in an MMP environment | 5: Elections 
6: Problem solving with the public law toolbox | 7: Working with Government | 8: Policy making and law reform
9: Making law | 10: Parliamentary tools | 11: Gathering information | 12: Human rights Protection
13: International law | 14: Inquiries | 15: Ombudsman | 16: Auditor-General | 17: PCECH 
18: Privacy Commissioner | 19: Health and Disability Commissioner | 20: IPCA | 21: Regs Review Committee 
22: Judicial Conduct Comm | 23: Security and intelligence agencies | 24: Business regulators
25: Regulation of professions | 26: Litigation as a public law tool | 27: Fraud and corruption | 28: Constitutional change
Mary Harris, QSO
Clerk of the House of Representatives
"Mai Chen’s Public Law Tool Box goes a long way to making our system more accessible to those who do not deal with it day to day.  This is important because one of the risks to the system is that the public does not value it sufficiently. They simply take it for granted."
As a Scientist and Inventor I revere elegant solutions to complex problems. Elegant solutions have their foundation in disruptive thinking by people who think outside the square. 

Mai Chen’s Public Law toolbox exemplifies an elegant solution to understanding the way that Public law determines and impacts upon every aspect of our daily life and our social and governmental evolution. 

Perhaps more importantly it puts actionable knowledge in the hands of the people and gives individuals and organisations the opportunities to use these tools for the greater good. It is a blueprint for a more egalitarian society where we can all have our say in forging the future of this young and dynamic country New Zealand. Thank you Mai.


- Sir Ray Avery, GNZM
“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.” Article 1, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1949

Public law and our relationships with the Crown is already engrained in the Kiwi psyche. Mai Chen’s Public Law Toolbox has become an important part of that relationship, a unique insight into our democracy, government and constitution.  Understanding our rights as well as our responsibilities are the things that democracies, human rights and great nations are founded upon.  Much more than a philosophical tome, Mai’s publication helps everyday New Zealanders and organisations understand and navigate their relationships with the Crown, and vice versa.
- Dame Susan Devoy
Race Relations Commissioner
Too few New Zealanders understand our system of governance.  Its reliance on convention and the myriad of law that makes up our constitutional framework can make it hard to follow.  But yet on an international scale we have one of the best and most respected systems of representative parliamentary democracy.  

The public need to be aware of the opportunities that exist to participate in the parliamentary process to influence government outcomes, and the availability of mechanisms to hold the Government to account for its decisions.  The public need to know that while justice can be time consuming and expensive, there are other ways in which disputes can be resolved and problems solved.  There is a “safety net” and the Public Law Tool Box captures it.     

Mai draws on her vast experience of the public law in setting down the way our processes operate and how they can be used, rather than detailing the legal rationale or the history.  In describing the many tools available, she assists us to know “in any particular situation, which tool to deploy”.   In many ways it is the availability and use of these tools that maintains the “peace and tranquillity of New Zealand”.1  [Parliamentary Prayer]
An abiding approach that sets the book apart from almost any other is the way in which interviews with government officials or politicians and excerpts from speeches are cited along with quotations from judgement of courts with no hierarchy.  The idea that authors need to be deceased in order to be cited carries no weight with the Mai Chen approach.  The result is an interesting, up to date and authoritative work that will be of interest to people on the beltway as well as the highway and many others in between.  Chen says this explicitly, indicating that the book is for a range of people from business to students and, incidentally, “lawyers and other professional advisers”. 

In the second edition of the Public Law Toolbox, Mai Chen furthers what looks like becoming a trademark broadband approach.  To explain that, people derive information from books or even magazines and journals that describe events, processes and objects.  They can also learn how things work and how to operate them from manuals.  If they seek an explanation of principles and the elucidation of arguments, they turn to a textbook.  The approach which the author began in the first edition is now furthered and deepened in this issue to be published at the end of 2014. Public Law Toolbox is an amalgam of all three - journal, manual and textbook.  Description is there for example in the chapters describing the Privacy Commissioner, Ombudsman and Auditor-General and their jurisdictions or in describing fraud and corruption.  “How to” material arises in relation to using litigation as a public law tool or in a chapter entitled “A road map for dealing with government” or that called “Problem solving with the public law toolbox”.  Textbook analysis occurs in a number of places but a convenient example is describing the extent of reach of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act and examining cases that have been taken before the courts.  Although this edition eschews any special section on Maori matters, which the first edition traversed, because the author thinks it deserves a book of its own, there is coverage of the Maori dimension in a number of chapters.  The book is not restricted to New Zealand because of a detailed chapter called “International law toolbox”.
- Rt Hon Sir Anand Satyanand
Former Ombudsman, former Governor-General of New Zealand, Chairman of the Commonwealth Foundation and Distinguished Fellow at the School of Law at the University of Auckland, District Court Judge and Chair of the Confidential Forum for Former In-Patients of Psychiatric Hospitals
Thanks to a new regulator in my industry, despite my 30 plus years’ industry experience, I found myself in need of Mai Chen’s help to understand what was happening, why it was happening and how we should respond to it all.

To cut a long story short, Mai has been a godsend to me in helping work with the regulator to understand their requirements for our industry and specifically our business and we certainly couldn’t have walked this far down that road without herLike with everything else she tackles, Mai has not simply written a book that enhances her reputation amongst academics and elevates her within her profession.  Instead she has created a method to share with us the vast learnings and experience of New Zealand public law that she has amassed throughout her professional life, and she has done so using language that allows the non-lawyers amongst us to easily understand it all.

I have to admit, until I stood facing down the barrel of regulatory uncertainty, I had little appreciation of the relevance of public law to me. The Public Law Toolbox contains so much that is relevant and interesting not only to my current business interests, but also to me as an engaged citizen of New Zealand. 

So now that I have come to know the real Mai Chen,  I can clearly see that ‘the little bird’ that drives Mai in so many aspects of her life, has also driven her to deliver this incredibly generous gift of her knowledge and experience for the benefit of all New Zealanders. Thank you for your gift Mai.
Naomi Ballantyne 
Founding Managing Director, Partners Life Limited
This second edition of the Public Law Toolbox is an invaluable update, not only for those affected by public policy but also for those with a keen interest in NZ politics and public affairs.  The comprehensive and detailed nature of the Toolbox guarantees that an interested reader will be fully informed about all aspects of public law by the time they finish this outstanding analysis of the New Zealand political and public law framework.

Fortunately, for those like me whose daily indulgences do not include the in depth examination of academic texts, the Toolbox is also extremely readable, full of anecdotal examples to illustrate in contemporary terms what could otherwise be seen as arcane principles of public law.   I found myself reading out of genuine interest rather than simply from the perspective of someone operating within the politico-legal system who needs to be widely informed about current practice and administration.

I strongly recommend the Public Law Toolbox to companies, organisations, professionals and students who need to have an understanding of how laws actually change and are influenced in New Zealand. Even those of us who have been operating within the New Zealand political framework for decades can learn something from this outstanding contribution to public law knowledge.
Michelle Boag
Director, Boag Allan SvG
"Mai Chen’s Public Law Tool Box goes a long way to making our system more accessible to those who do not deal with it day to day."