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Litigation does not have a good press - in fact, it is usually viewed very negatively. Rates of litigation in Western countries are claimed to be spiralling beyond control, and this is said to indicate a fundamental crisis in contemporary Western societies. "Litigation: Past and Present" sheds some much-needed light on these views, by examining actual patterns of litigation, both historical and contemporary, and considering the many ways in which courts provide strategies for social change and social justice. Topics surveyed include the long-range recording of litigation rates, the social uses of legal action, the effectiveness of procedural reforms in reducing litigation, and the impact of legal proceedings and activism on Indigenous rights, and on marriage and family issues. Litigation and its impact are too often discussed in excessively rhetorical and pragmatic terms. This volume, with contributions from internationally recognised scholars, adds much needed empirical research and theoretical perspectives to the discussion.
Henry John Chitty Harper was the first Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Christchuch. To mark the 150th anniversary of his arrival in 1856, ten experienced historians tell the story of the setting up of a branch of the Church of England in a new colony. They highlight the people - bishop, clergy, lay people, including Maori-who shaped this story. New research on the rich records left by Harper and other allows the authors to illuminate in fresh ways the process by which the English church model was adapted, at least in part, to a very different land. By the time of Harper's retirement in 1890, the diocese was arguably the most successful in New Zealand. The story is set in a wider context of the evolution of provincial and colonial society and the development of the Anglican church, both in New Zealand and worldwide. Written for a general readership, Shaping a Colonial Church is generously illustrated, many of the photographs being published here for the first time.