A Patch on the System?: E-crime and the Crimes Amendment Act 2003

The first part of the article examines the issue of jurisdiction, a key aspect of any e-crime case given the global nature of today's information age. It draws upon New Zealand precedents involving jurisdictional issues, as well as judgments from the United Kingdom and United States, in order to glean guidance on how New Zealand courts might approach the extraterritorial nature of e-crime. The second part is a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of the main ecrime provisions in the Act: sections 248 to 252.2 The third part considers future developments regarding prosecutorial issues in e-crimes. Finally, the article concludes by reviewing anomalies identified in the legislation, and by passing a verdict on its anticipated functionality in practice.