Abstract
The large-scale use of a geothermal resource anywhere is likely to be a matter involving the government of the country. In a legal history of geothermal resource issues in New Zealand, Boast (1995) refers to them as “legal battles” fought out before courts and tribunals. The weapons are scientific and engineering ideas, presented by expert witnesses. For many years now, obtaining consents (permits and licences are generally called resource consents in New Zealand) has been a public process which is adversarial, that is, those for and against the proposal present evidence to a committee or court in support of their views. The developer normally presents all the scientific background to show that the resource is understood sufficiently to allow the effects to be predicted. There are often three separate groups: those in favour, those against on commercial grounds and those against on environmental conservation grounds. The expert witness, although paid by one particular group, has a professional duty to the court—they are not advocates, as are the lawyers, but experts whose opinion the court expects to be unbiased towards their client.
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Watson, A. (2013). Struggles Between Commercial Use and Conservation: Examples from New Zealand. In: Geothermal Engineering. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8569-8_14
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