Terra nullius

When Australia was discovered it did not have any legal ownership over it so by British law (the law of Terra Nullius) it could be overtaken, but the only problem was that the land was occupied by Aboriginal people before the invasion. The Aboriginal people did not claim the land as their own because they believed they were equal with the earth. The land was very…

Terra Nullius is a word derived from Roman Law meaning “no one’s Land”. Claims were made on the land of Aboriginal people and they were restricted to practice culture, spirituality, language and visiting their own ritual sites. The first people of Australia. The indigenous people, the first owners of the land we live in. people who lost everything in post colonization. Loss of culture, family, identity, lost sacred sites, loss of lands. People who were treated as servants and exploited. Though…

about 3 lines for each of the following about the significance for Indigenous Land Rights in Australia: (a) “Terra nullius” Terra Nullius means that land without. When Captain Cook and his crew was in Australia , they decided the land was Terra Nullius. They acknowledge Indigenous people because of their primitive life. The High Court's Mabo judgement overturned the Terra Nullius fiction in 1982. (b) Protective legislation Victoria enacted Aboriginal protection act. This act were being…

the High Court as a test case to establish Aboriginal’s land rights including their ownership of land. A test case is a case that establishes new legal rights or principles. In this case, the concept of terra nullius was also challenged. Terra Nullius means ‘empty land’. The concept of terra nullius meant that Australia was an empty land before British settlement. This concept, therefore, suggested there is no ownership of this land by the aboriginals. A Torres Islander named Eddie Mabo was…

Mabo: Has change occurred? Mabo v Queensland (No. 2) (1992) was a momentous court case that witnessed the legal doctrine of ‘terra nullius’ being classified as inutile in the High Court of Australia; a major step to reconciliation between the Indigenous and non-Indigenous, but how much impact does this case still have today from being brought into court 33 years ago? Nicholas Recchi reports. This year marks the 33rd year from May 1982, from when Eddie Koiki Mabo and four Meriam persons from the…

Mabo Decision which occurred in 1982 and ended in 1992. The Mabo Decision a case for which Eddie Koiki Mabo fought for the tradition rights and ownership of the Island of Mer otherwise known as Murray Island. During 1788 Australia was claimed ‘Terra Nullius’ by the British and as a result all land that traditionally belonged to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders was taken away. Soon Aboriginals didn’t have the rights of the land that they lived on and were not counted as an Australian…

Most convicts in the 17th Century England consisted of thieves, murders or people who have committed moral crimes. Transportation to other colonies, including harsh labour was an integral part of the English and Irish systems of punishment. It was a way to deal with increased poverty. Simple larceny (Crime involving someone taking another person's personal property) , or robbery, could mean transportation for seven years. Compound larceny – stealing goods worth more than a shilling (about $50 in…

They compulsory British common law on the native inhabitants and took away their rule. This common law superseded normal law, as no acknowledgment was given to the rights of the native population due to the idea of terra nullius. British common law dictated the land was considered territory belonging to no one as Jack waterford editor of the National Indigenous Times (17th of February 2001) “.....When they (Aboriginal) were forced onto reserves from the 1850 onwards, their…

This prompted me to rethink about colonial endeavors. The land and the Aboriginal people were exploited by these western civilizations as a means of expanding their political economy. Operating under the doctrine of terra nullius, the European settlers stripped the land of its preexisting meanings and ascribed onto it their own. What is interesting to think about here are how European settlers imposed their consumerist ways of being onto the landscape and the Indigenous…

English were able to remove lands from indigenous peoples under the belief that the land was vacant (vacuum domicilium) or there was no prior ownership (terra nullius). Ardill (2009) lists other reasons for colonising which came under International law these were that lands could be accrued through three means: conquest, discovery (terra nullius) or cession. The British had rights to conquer a land and its people, discover a land and make the assumption that due to the apparent lack of social…