A number of challenges face the country’s legal profession, lawyers say
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As part of an ongoing survey, legal professionals are singling out the biggest challenges in contract law that the New Zealand legal community is facing.
“The intersection of New Zealand contract law with laws from other jurisdictions, as we become increasingly trade focused” is one of the biggest challenges facing the space, one lawyer wrote, saying that legal professionals are facing issues with GDPR and its flow on effect for the country’s multinationals.
Other legal professionals are concerned with other changes sweeping the world and their regulatory impacts that are affecting New Zealand.
“[One of the biggest contract law issue is] how to effectively and simply put in place enforceable contracts in a digital world – in a way that meets the expectations of customers and regulators,” said another respondent, who is a senior lawyer at a major bank.
Another participant, who is part of a Christchurch firm, said that the profession must really watch developments in blockchain and other distributed-ledger technologies. Other respondents mentioned resistance to digital signing and the specifics of online contracts as issues.
Concerns were not all about technology and new laws, however, as one respondent said that a review of the current regime may be needed.
One participant said that there are a number of reform instruments that need review, which may be wrapped into a single instrument. Another said that there needs to be clarity regarding the extent to which subjective interpretation of contract terms and meaning can be admitted as evidence and serve as an aid to interpretation by the courts.
Legal industry professionals can still share their insights and concerns on the NZ Lawyer Contract Law Survey. A lucky respondent of the online survey will win a bottle of Moët & Chandon champagne.
