Abstract
The Cook Islands Court of Appeal handed down an important decision in early 2016 dealing with the issue of whether the state or a customary authority had the right to decide entitlement to a major customary title in the Cook Islands. As such, the case raises an issue that continues to be highly contested in many Pacific island nations: the limits of adjudicatory responsibility of customary authorities within the nation’s constitutional framework. That such issues continue to arise in the
Cook Islands, even fifty years after internal self-governance, is a testimony to the complexity of the task of determining the role of custom, customary leaders and institutions within an introduced legal and governance framework.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 26-38 |
Journal | Journal of South Pacific Law |
Volume | 2016 |
Issue number | 2 |
Publication status | Published - 2016 |