Legislation and te Tiriti o Waitangi
Acts, Bills, supplementary order papers, legislative instruments and te Tiriti, under chapter 4.
Chapter 4 covers legislation. It is shorter and simpler than the Australian equivalent, mostly because New Zealand has one Parliament.
Acts
An Act is its short title, its year, and the provision. The title is not italicised.
You do not write “(NZ)” on a New Zealand Act. r 4.1.1(c) adds a jurisdiction only to tell an overseas Act apart from a New Zealand one.
Title of Act year, s section.
Schedules and definitions
A schedule and the provision inside it run together with no comma between them.
Where you are relying on a definition, name the defined term after the provision.
te Tiriti o Waitangi
te Tiriti is cited by the rule for statutes. r 4.1.1(e) says so, and prints the accepted forms in both te reo Māori and English. The Declaration of Independence is cited the same way.
Use whichever form matches the text you are relying on.
Bills
A Bill is not yet law. It is cited by title, year, and its Bill number with the bar number after a hyphen. Pinpoints are clauses, not sections.
Title of Bill year (number-bar), cl clause.
Explanatory notes and select committee reports
Both are cited as part of the Bill, naming which one you mean (r 4.2.2).
Supplementary order papers
A supplementary order paper amends a Bill, and is cited with the Bill it amends (r 4.2.3).
Legislative instruments, court rules and letters patent
Regulations, rules and similar instruments are cited like Acts, with the pinpoint designation changing to match (r 4.3).
The year is optional here, and only here. Some instruments are cited without one.
Older and imperial legislation
Pre-1854 ordinances carry a regnal year and a number (r 4.1.3).
Imperial legislation in force in New Zealand is cited by the rules for pre-1963 United Kingdom statutes, which r 4.1.2 hands over to r 9.4.1.
There is no New Zealand constitution to cite
New Zealand has no single codified constitutional document, which is why the Style Guide has no rule for one and why Pincite offers no source type for it.
Cite whichever ordinary Act you mean: the Constitution Act 1986, the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990, the Electoral Act 1993, the Senior Courts Act 2016. Each is an Act like any other.
Related Index entries
ActTe Tiriti o WaitangiPre-1854 ordinanceImperial legislation in force in New ZealandBillExplanatory note or select committee report on a BillSupplementary order paperLegislative instrument or regulationsCourt rulesLetters patentDeemed instrument or DINLILast reviewed 6 August 2026