Rural legal issues can arise not just in the environmental and resource management space, but from many aspects of everyday rural life, such as animal welfare, council inspections, trespass, boundary disputes, land and water use, rural heritage, protection of natural areas, forestry.   

Farming is more than a job, it’s a way of life and the farming way of life in New Zealand has resulted in one of the world’s most efficient and successful farming economies. There are many laws that affect farmers one way or another, for example, the 1908 Land Drainage Act is still relevant more than 100 years after it came to be the law, and is useful in helping to encourage downstream neighbours to keep their waterways clear so your farm doesn’t get flooded when it rains.