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The Law Society has told parliament that removing the defence of using reasonable force when parents discipline their children would create a legal vacuum.
It has recommended that the law be amended so judges and parents have clear guidance about what is acceptable when disciplining a child.
The warning came in the Society's submission on Green Party MP Sue Bradford's bill to repeal section 59 of the Crimes Act.
Society spokesperson Simon Jefferson says Section 59 is applied inconsistently, but should not just be repealed. He says an amendment has the advantage of giving clear guidance to the courts and parents as to what contemporary society regards as acceptable correction of a child.
Jefferson says the society accepts that parenting, by definition, embraces a corrective role.
Plunket is rejecting the Law Society's call for a re-write of the law, saying it must be repealed outright. Chief executive Paul Baigent says Section 59 is crazy law and amending it would be a retrograde step that would define how parents could go about hitting their children.
Baigent says repealing Section 59 is about changing the environment in which children are raised, not about criminalising parents.
