In the eyes of many politicians and analysts Aotearoa New Zealand's "independent" foreign policy is being undermined. Critics argue that closer security arrangements with Australia and NATO as well as the possibility that New Zealand will join Pillar II of AUKUS would reverse the country's ability to chart a pragmatic self-determining approach in its foreign policy.

Recently, former Prime Minster Helen Clark and former National Party leader Don Brash put aside their historical animosity to argue that a decision to join AUKUS would "abandon our independent foreign policy in favor of unqualified support for America's 'China containment policy.'" They accused New Zealand's current government of deciding to "throw in our lot with America's attempt to slow China's economic rise and keep it tightly hemmed in by American forces." Various members of the opposition Labor Party have similarly argued against a New Zealand presence in AUKUS, describing the pact as an attempt to "wedge" China and a trade threat.

The Taiwanese presidential election on January 13, won by Vice President Lai Ching-te (or William Lai) of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), was hardly welcomed by China. The Chinese government had actively opposed the DPP. It has been accused, not for the first time, of electoral interference in favor of its preferred candidates.

After the election, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement, "Whatever changes take place in Taiwan, the basic fact that there is only one China in the world and Taiwan is part of China will not change." The statement reiterated the One China principle and re-affirmed Beijing's opposition to "'Taiwan independence' separatism." Punctuating its position, Beijing condemned foreign leaders who extended congratulations to Lai, and welcomed Nauru into an official relationship as the Pacific island state severed ties with Taiwan just two days after the election.

The drawn-out hostage drama in West Papua over New Zealand pilot Philip Mehrtens has focused Western attention on this neglected area of the world. Mehrtens was abducted and his plane burned by the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) on February 7, 2023. He was accused by the group of violating a no-fly zone it had issued over the West Papua region. On April 16, rebel spokesperson Sebby Sambom stated in a recorded message that TPNPB has "asked the Indonesian and New Zealand governments to free the hostages through peaceful negotiations." The group originally demanded that Indonesian authorities recognize the independence of West Papua, but more recently it indicated that it was prepared to drop the demand for independence and seek dialogue.

This paper describes and analyses the sources and content of Taiwanese and international law relating to indigenous hunting and gathering practices. The recognition of practices and the traditional territories in which these activities carried out is considered by indigenous groups to be a core aspect of their self-determination claims. It argues that while current law gives significant recognition to hunting and gathering rights, the rights have been inadequately implemented, and are inappropriately circumscribed by majoritarian notions of 'traditional' and indigenous culture. The result is that historic indigenous uses of land have been narrowly circumscribed using an unjustified notion of a static traditional culture and activities. It further argues that the failure to adequately delineate the extent of traditional territory and allow for co-management of the hunting and gathering practices within the territory intrude upon indigenous self-determination as guaranteed by international instruments and national law.

This paper argues that aboriginal rights in Canada have been greatly affected by 19th century governmental and social conflicts within the Canadian colonial state. These conflicts, largely over the ownership of land and regulatory authority between the federal government and the provinces necessarily impacted the First Nations on the ground while affecting how their legal claims were recognized and implemented. In particular they impacted the legal efficacy of treaty rights, the scope of rights recognised by the courts and an expansive legally protected notion of indigenous sovereignty. As a result, the rights now protected under sec. 25 and 35 of the Constitution Act 1982 are more restricted than the text might imply.

This article examines the legal recognition of indigenous interests in Japan and Taiwan. Both these states have moved largely away from an ethnically defined conception of national identity and have taken steps to legally recognise and protect indigenous communities and autonomy. However, the process has privileged indigenous cultural policies while providing less protection for other rights such as autonomy and control of natural resources. This article argues the emphasis on cultural protection and the rhetorical embrace of other indigenous rights without the concomitant policy and legal implementation is because international indigenous norms remain prescriptively ambiguous in the Japanese and Taiwanese context and are difficult to reconcile with Japanese and Taiwanese national identities.

The 2024 Olympics in Paris demonstrated the continuing importance of sports events as an aspect of public diplomacy and soft power. France used the event to reflect the French commitment to diversity and equality while demonstrating its continued great power status. The recent endorsement by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for a National Rugby League Team for Papua New Guinea (PNG) is proof that Australia continues to use "sports diplomacy" as one element in its foreign policy toolkit.

Japan signed the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 1992, and ratified it in 1993. Since that time, the Japanese Governmenthas sought to include the consideration for, and the preservation of biodiversity in the domestic legislative process. Howeverthese efforts did not attain full realization until 2008, when under the increasing pressure and influence of domestic environmental movement, the Japanese Government established the Babic Act on Biodiversity (Act No. 58 of 2008). This paper will examine and summarize the localization process of the CBDthrough an analysis of three sectors of Japanese society: state actors (including local governments), societal actors (non-governmental movements andinterest groups, etc.), and private actors. The paper considers the interaction of these various sectors in the development of biodiversity policy and argues for the potential the "Environmentalization" of Japanese law, i.e. that the legislative and the regulatory process include as a background assumption that biodiversity is an objective of regulatory protection. This environmentalization had become an important component in Japan's self-perception as a "responsible power" in international environmental circles.

Human history would be significantly different without contagious disease and epidemics. These unpredictable events have weakened empires, reversed the fortunes of war, facilitated colonial expansion, impacted the development of technology and changed cultural practices. The people who lived during these pestilences, which often struck without notice or reason, availed themselves to any number of hygienic, medicinal and/or spiritual actions to ward away infection, attribute causes and provide meaning for the disease and death that surrounded them. Yet prior to arrival of germ theory, the link between life, death and disease remained subject to fate and a thin thread of contingency.

This article analyses the evolution of colonial state power through an investigation into the Hong Kong colonial government's response to the 1894 Plague and its subsequent reoccurrence in the following decades. The most virulent period of this epidemic was from early May to late July 1894 when plague disease infected 2,679 people, killing 2,485, with a mortality rate of 93.4%.¹ This lethal illness disproportionally afflicted the local Chinese population and led to extensive intervention by the colonial administration into Chinese communities. Prior to the plague, two communities had little contact with each other and lived their lives in accordance with their own mores. This relative insularity was changed as the colonial government used highly intrusive house-to-house disinfecting programs and invested in extensive sanitation, public health, zoning and building regulations to combat the disease. The paper argues that the changes made in colonial state-local Chinese community relationship and the extension of colonial jurisdiction initiated the initial development of a separate Hong Kong identity for the Chinese community and a new form of colonial state in Hong Kong. This new Hong Kong identity and this new colonial state was the progeniture of the post-British Hong Kong state that has been the object of so much political, cultural and ideological contestation today.

China has been criticised by human rights organisations for its failure to provide sufficient safeguards for involuntary confinement and discharge, involuntary experimental medical trials, and forced treatment of those with mental health problems. The legal shortcomings have become increasingly salient given the growing emphasis on the civil rights of mental health patients across the globe and China’s recent accession to Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. In an effort to address these domestic problems and international responsibilities, China adopted its first National Mental Health Law in 2012. According to Xinhua state news agency the law seeks to 'curb abuses regarding compulsory mental health treatment and protect citizens from undergoing unnecessary treatment or illegal hospitalization’. The protracted 27 year discussion over funding, oversight responsibilities, admissions criteria, accreditation standards, and community mental health services, has led to a law which seeks to provide one national standard for the delivery and treatment of mental health services as well as standards and safeguards for involuntary commitment. This paper examines the provisions of the law as they relate to the definition of mental disorder and involuntary civil commitment. It argues that the new statute provides some safeguards to prevent unfair or abusive involuntary committal, as well as incorporating additional normative standards (based on international and domestic law) which should provide for additional measures to protect individuals who suffer from mental illness. However, the broad definition of mental illness in the Act could lead to involuntary committal. Likewise, there is a lack of extra-medical or due process safeguards that could enhance the ability of the system to maintain and protect personal dignity. Additional changes are therefore required to enable the Law to reach the standard required under the Chinese Constitution and the Convention.