"Disasters are social phenomena, caused by society’s inability to cope with hazards. These hazards come in many forms, both natural and man-made.  What makes a disaster is not the event itself but the impact that it causes. At the heart of society’s ability to respond, prepare for and recover from disasters, is law."¹

This guide on disaster law has been curated by the Law Subject Librarians at the University of Canterbury. 

It is our hope that it will direct researchers to material on disaster law within the Library collection and online. 

We welcome suggestions on content that could be added to this guide. 

¹ Aotearoa New Zealand Institute of Law, Emergencies and Disasters <https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/law/research/lead/>

This guide has been designed around the disaster law structure of hazards and events. 

A hazard can occur anywhere. 

An event involves an impact on people or society 

When a hazard and an event occur together then a disaster occurs. 

There is a large corpus of legal material around disaster law. This guide is not intended to be complete in scope but intends to curate key content to assist research in disaster law with a specific focus on disaster law in Aotearoa. Within this corpus of legal material there is legisation, judgments and legal commentary:

Legislation can be created in anticipation of or in response to disasters. 

Judgments will be a decision of court proceedings in response to events or consequences of a disaster.

Legal commentary may be written on disaster law in theoretical terms of or in response to disasters. 

You can use this guide to look at hazards generally (earthquakes, pandemics etc) or specific events (Canterbury earthquakes 2010–2011, COVID–19 etc). Within this guide content has been selected by the Law Subject Librarians to assist with research on disaster law. Access to some content is restricted to UC students and staff.