Adverse party's due process right to fair tribunal in a contested case hearing before commission not violated by land and natural resources department chairperson also serving as chairperson of commission under subsection (b) where legislature deemed it appropriate for one person to serve in both capacities and could override common law doctrine of incompatible offices which prohibited a person from serving in a dual capacity. 94 H. 97, 9 P.3d 409.

Department of land and natural resources chairperson's dual status as chairperson of the commission and the department did not constitute a reversible due process violation where, although chairperson should have been precluded from presiding over the hearing, objecting party did not seek chairperson's disqualification, and where chairperson's disqualification would have prevented commission from acting on the case for lack of quorum, the "rule of necessity" demanded that chairperson preside over the hearing. 94 H. 97, 9 P.3d 409.

In denying permit application, commission did not wrongfully ignore and abridge petitioner's "ali`i rights" where, to the extent that the ali`i exercised sovereign authority over water, they received such authority by delegation from the sovereign; pursuant to constitutional and statutory mandate, final delegated authority presently resides in the commission, to be exercised for the benefit of the people of the State. 94 H. 97, 9 P.3d 409.

Where department of land and natural resources was a party in a contested case proceeding before the commission, constitutional mandate that tribunal be impartial precluded chairperson of the commission, who was also chairperson of the department, from presiding over the hearing. 94 H. 97, 9 P.3d 409.