Law School Expands Tikanga Across LLB Despite National Scale-Back

“Tikanga doesn’t come out of nowhere. It’s not something that’s been foisted on people because of a particular stripe of government.” 

That is how Professor Māmari Stephens describes tikanga Māori’s place in legal education. Tikanga refers to Māori law, values, principles, and practices, and courts have increasingly recognised tikanga as part of Aotearoa’s legal system. 

At Te Herenga Waka, the Faculty of Law is now expanding the teaching of tikanga Māori across its Bachelor of Laws (LLB), embedding it throughout core papers despite a nationwide scaling-back of requirements.

The New Zealand Council of Legal Education initially proposed a compulsory first-year tikanga course alongside integration across all core LLB subjects. However, that broader requirement was later disallowed by Parliament’s Regulation Review Committee in May 2025, following criticism from Gary Judd KC, who said embedding tikanga across all subjects would be “unusual or unexpected.”

As a result, law schools are now only required to offer an introductory tikanga course at 100 level. Critics have warned this risks reducing tikanga to a “tick-box” requirement, rather than treating it as a coherent legal system. 

Despite the regulatory rollback, Te Herenga Waka has moved ahead. From this year, tikanga content has been integrated across all four compulsory 200-level papers: Public Law, Torts, Contract, and Criminal Law. The faculty also plans to extend this integration to 300-level courses, including Property and Equity, by 2027.

Stephens said the goal is to develop a “tikanga instinct” in graduates—the ability to recognise when tikanga is relevant and respond appropriately.

“You could have entire cases where crucial things aren’t being mentioned because the lawyers involved don’t have the lens,” she said.

The curriculum is designed to build progressively. At 100-level, MAOR 126—Engaging with Māori in Professional Practice—introduces foundational concepts such as te reo Māori, tikanga, and Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

Students then apply these concepts across core law papers. In Criminal Law, for example, students examine practices such as muru and pana, considering how principles like tapu and mana may operate in legal contexts.

Teaching is grounded in application rather than abstraction, focusing on how tikanga functions in specific legal scenarios.

“The goal is not to produce tikanga experts,” Stephens said. “It’s to ensure graduates can recognise when tikanga is engaged and incorporate it into their reasoning.”

The curriculum was developed by approaching tikanga as both a system of legal norms and lived practice.

That process began with language.

“Law follows language,” she said, pointing to research that digitises historical texts to understand how Māori legal concepts were expressed.

From there, the focus shifts to practice—how people act within tikanga frameworks, and how those practices reflect underlying values.

Stephens said embedding tikanga across the degree better prepares graduates to practise law in Aotearoa. Without consistent exposure, she warned, students may fail to recognise when tikanga is relevant, leaving key arguments unmade.

In turn, graduates risk overlooking “other kinds of legal forces at work” in cases, she said. 

Further development of the curriculum will depend on resourcing. Stephens identified three key pressures: workforce, research, and cultural capacity.

“Workforce capacity is absolutely crucial,” she said, pointing to the need to train more Māori legal academics. 

Research remains another gap. Tikanga scholarship is largely unfunded at the faculty level, requiring individual law schools to develop their own materials.

Cultural development, she said, presents the greatest challenge.

“Tikanga education should be reflected in how we behave towards each other—in the faculty and across the university. That’s a generational shift.”

“That takes time and good relationships.”

Despite the national retreat from broader requirements, Te Herenga Waka’s approach signals a longer-term shift in how law is taught in Aotearoa—one that treats tikanga not as an add-on, but as an integral part of legal reasoning.