An interesting analogy

A couple of months ago I blogged about the case of a Wellington family who were suing to have land returned to them after it had been compulsorily acquired by the government during WWII for military purposes. This was a perfect analogy for the foreshore and seabed case, except for the fact that here there was no question that the government had legally acquired the land (and had then illegally failed to return it) - something that was simply not true in the case of the foreshore.

The High Court has now decided that the government failed in its duty, and that it must offer the land back to the family. So we have an acceptance that property ownership is a question of fact, to be settled by the courts - unless you're Maori, that is.