(1) This section applies if a tribunal (the requesting tribunal ) is dealing with an application.
(2) However, this section does not apply to an application for review of a decision under the Heritage Act 2004
, the Planning Act 2023
or the Urban Forest Act 2023
.
(3) The requesting tribunal may, on its own initiative or on application by a party, ask the president to allocate 1 or more tribunal members to a tribunal (the ruling tribunal ) to give a ruling on a question of law.
(4) If the ruling tribunal gives a ruling on a question of law, the requesting tribunal is bound by the ruling.
Note Question of law includes whether a question is a question of law (see dict).
(5) A ruling tribunal is made up of 1 or more of the following tribunal members allocated by the president:
(a) a presidential member;
(b) a senior member who is a lawyer and has been a lawyer for 5 years or more.
(6) However, a ruling tribunal must not contain a tribunal member allocated to the requesting tribunal.