Changing property regimes in Maori society: A critical assessment of the settlement process in New Zealand

Abstract

This article examines controversies around the representation of Maori in the process that aimed at settling colonial grievances about the dispossession of their land in the 19th century. The analysis of contemporary questions is situated in a historical perspective on the nature of property rights in the past: who used to own the land then and what does it mean now? A legal anthropological perspective is used to disentangle historical and contemporary concerns in order to refine the quest for the right balance between historical justice and social justice.