ABSTRACT
The Crown has many faces both in English law and in the colonial and postcolonial law of New Zealand. This short chapter identifies some of these distinct manifestations of the Crown and asks whether New Zealand can or should replicate these different conceptions in the event that it were to become a republic. Capturing the existing nuances, including those which have helped make the settlement of reparations claims with Māori possible, would be no small task and would require the invention of a new language of statehood. The chapter begins by briefly setting out three core usages of the Crown in English law, discusses how these ideas were modified or attracted distinct nuances in the colonial encounter with Māori, and looks to identify central questions which would arise if a republic were in contemplation.
