LEAD Research Collection

The LEAD Research Collection contains a range of unpublished research papers and reports, including unpublished student work from the Institute.

2022

Issue 1

Hannah Petrie

The OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (hereafter referred to as the Guidelines) are well-meaning but often poorly executed. This report investigates the role of the New Zealand National Contact Point and makes suggestions for strengthening the implementation of the Guidelines utilising a more proactive approach.

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2021

Issue 1

TO THE RESCEU? DISASTER RESPONSE AS A DRIVER FOR EUROPEAN INTEGRATION

Holly Faulkner and W John Hopkins

The EU’s 2018 decision to strengthen its civil protection mechanism has been a long time in the making. Since the original Council resolution of 1987, the Union has incrementally expanded its role in the field of disaster response and planning. This expansion has been slow and, at times, painfully so, as states have regularly challenged the EU’s growing role in an area often seen as core member-state business. Nevertheless, the increasing inability of Member States to response to disasters, alongside changes in the political dynamics of the Union in the post-Brexit referendum environment, have allowed the EU to develop the foundations for a truly European response mechanism to disaster events (rescEU). This is all the more remarkable as this system has developed against a backdrop of retrenchment and crisis within the EU as a whole. This paper assesses the structure of this new model of positive EU co-operation in the context of EU integration. In particular, it asks whether the realities of increased risk from natural hazards is creating a new drive towards European co-operation and provides a new driver for European co-operation. Will disasters, ironically, rescEU the Union?

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Issue 2

Andre Knops

In response to the February 2011 earthquake, Parliament enacted the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Act. This emergency legislation provided the executive with extreme powers that extended well beyond the initial emergency response and into the recovery phase. Although New Zealand has the Civil Defence Emergency Management Act 2002, it was unable to cope with the scale and intensity of the Canterbury earthquake sequence. Considering the well-known geological risk facing the Wellington region, this paper will consider whether a standalone “Disaster Recovery Act” should be established to separate an emergency and its response from the recovery phase. Currently, Government policy is to respond reactively to a disaster rather than proactively. In a major event, this typically involves the executive being given the ability to make rules, regulations and policy without the delay or oversight of normal legislative process. In the first part of this paper, I will canvas what a “Disaster Recovery Act” could prescribe and why there is a need to separate recovery from emergency. Secondly, I will consider the shortfalls in the current civil defence recovery framework which necessitates this kind of heavy governmental response after a disaster. In the final section, I will examine how a Recovery Act could increase community resilience and how an Act could result in better outcomes.

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Issue 3

AN EXPLORATION OF THE DEVELOPMENT AND CURRENT USE OF THE CONCEPT OF “VULNERABILITY” WITHIN THE WIDER HUMAN RIGHTS DISCOURSE

Natacha Wisstt

These research papers explore the concept of vulnerability in international human rights law. In the wake of the Christchurch earthquakes of 2010-2011, this research focuses on how "vulnerability" has been used and developed within the wider human rights discourse. They also examine jurisprudence of international human rights bodies, and how the concept of "vulnerability" has been applied. The research also includes a brief investigation into the experiences of vulnerable populations in disaster contexts, focusing primarily on the experiences of "vulnerable persons" in the Christchurch earthquakes and their aftermath.

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