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Explore the justice system

On this page you'll find further activities that focus on the justice system.

1. Steps to justice

Do you know what happens to:

  • a person accused of a crime
  • a person who thinks someone else stole their good idea

Ask students to design a flow diagram to show the steps in a criminal and/or civil matter.

This activity could be used after working through the criminal and civil justice journeys on this website:

Learn more about criminal law and explore the criminal justice system through the case of Oliver Fender, a reckless driver.

Learn more about civil law and explore the civil justice system through the case of Mei Hsu, who thinks someone stole her idea.

2. Overview of New Zealand's judicial system    

Give students some or all of the following words to link together in a structured overview that shows the relationships between them:

  • Parliament
  • Executive
  • Judiciary
  • Judge
  • Courts system
  • High Court
  • District Court
  • Court of Appeal
  • Supreme Court

Students could use online resources from this section of the website to complete this, or they could do it 'cold' and then rework it after using the online resources.

3. Our legal system

Discuss the three different branches of government (Parliament, the Executive, and the Judiciary) and their roles. Students can then create a flow diagram to show this. Perhaps they could add a simple visual to help them remember the main areas.

4. The role of different courts

See the structure of courts poster [PDF, 1.2 MB]

Ask your students in pairs or groups to research the roles of the different courts and report back to the class. Alternatively, do this as an 'expert jigsaw'. Each group finds out information about a different court. They become 'experts' on this court and then groups meet to teach one another about their court.

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