Legal accountability and judicial review during the Covid-19 pandemic in Aotearoa New Zealand

The government in Aotearoa New Zealand, like other governments elsewhere, exercised significant and unprecedented power during the COVID-19 pandemic in order to combat the virus and to protect its people. The breadth and depth of the public health response also caused monumental interference in people’s lives. This Article discusses the way judicial review of administrative action was used to hold the government accountable in law for its public health response and provided an avenue for people to pursue grievances. The key phases of the public health response are described, and the types of power exercised are identified. The nature and outcome of the judicial review challenges to that response are then explained. The Article concludes by reflecting on insights this unusual set of cases reveal about the process of legal accountability in New Zealand and the methods used by judges when supervising decisions made by government.