Grounds of challenge

Press, 30 April 1981, Page 3

Grounds of challenge

PA Wellington The only possible legal challenge against a Royal Commission would be on grounds that it did not follow right procedures or that it investigated areas outside its brief, said. Professor Ken Keith, professor of law at Victoria University, yesterday.

He was commenting on how Air New 'Zealand could take action against the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the crash on Mount Erebus, conducted by Mr Justice Mahon. Professor Keith said that nobody could seek damages for statements made by a commission, because its legal status gave that privilege. Royal Commissions were established relatively rarely, and their task was to examine something fairly serious. he said. They generally followed court-like procedures, and their reports were based on a careful examination of the facts. Because of the process, and because of the status of those appointed to commissions, their reports carried a great deal of weight, Professor Keith said. One analysis of Royal

Commissions sometimes adopted was that the document was purely a report, and as such it was not a decision that could be challenged. As it was merely a report there was not much point in examining it with a view to quashing it. Therefore it was not reviewable. The only decision that a commission made which could be challenged would be the question of costs awarded for or against certain parties. Professor Keith said that the only avenue of challenge which Air New Zealand seemed to be examining was on the basis of procedures used by this Royal Commission. Nobody as yet had indicated that the Commission had examined matters which it was not entitled to investigate, he said.