Employees of Crown Law are getting a crash course about the importance of contract law by one of New Zealand’s specialists.

The three-day course, hosted by Quentin Hay, involves talking through the basics of contract law, and why it’s important.

Solicitor-General Graham Leung said contract law was one of the busiest parts of the work Crown Law undertook in the Cook Islands.

“A lot of our work involves Government contracts. Our job is to ensure the contracts protect the interest of Government,” Leung said.

“It’s quite a complex area of law. As always, the devil is in the detail. Contracts are there to ensure both parties keep up their end of the bargain.”

Leung said the course was part of a drive to upskill Crown Law staff in different aspects of the law.

“Contract law is so important because good contracts for the Government can result in them saving money, while bad contracts can result in the Government losing money,” he said.

“On every contract, you have to dot the i’s and cross the t’s. There is no one template which stipulates what a good contract is, it comes down to ensuring all the possible risks are covered.”

Hay leads a five-strong team which provides legal and commercial advice of all kinds to New Zealand’s international aid and development programme – called International Development Cooperation.

Among other things, the work involves transactions with international organisations, the governments of other countries and suppliers of all manner of goods and services.  

Hay said contracts were a necessity for the Cook Islands Government.

“They’re critical in a mixed economy such as the Cook Islands, where there are transactions for goods and services with private entities. So, you must have a contracting mechanism in place,” Hay said.

“Contracts are more complex these days, and the general need for them is more pronounced.”

Hay said there was discussion at the seminar about how contracts operated at a practical level.

Leung said the course would upskill and ensure further professional development of lawyers in Crown Law. 

Cook Islands’ isolation and remote location, heightened by the Covid-19 pandemic, underscores the importance of proactively identifying training opportunities for our lawyers. 

“We need to keep abreast of regional and international legal developments and changes which affect our work,” Leung said.

“Further staff training is expected during the remainder of the year and will be ongoing. This is part of a wider plan to ensure that the government of the Cook Islands has access to the best available legal services and advice from the Crown Law Office.”

Leung acknowledged the support of the New Zealand government which has made the training possible and Hay’s department for releasing him.

“It has come at no cost to our government and for that we are grateful,” Leung said.