The Doctrine of Discovery in Australia and the

The Doctrine of Discovery in Australia and the United States Professor Robert J. Miller Lewis & Clark Law School Portland, Oregon, U. S. A.

Johnson v. Mc. Intosh, 21 U. S. 543 (1823). Country settled on Discovery & Conquest n Discovery limited tribal land rights n Discovery limited tribal sovereign rights n

From Ambrose & Axtell, L&C Voyage of Discovery (1998) Louisiana Purchase - 1803

Elements of Discovery 1. First discovery n 2. Actual occupancy n 3. Preemption/European title. 4. Native title n 5. Sovereign and commercial rights n 6. Contiguity n 7. Terra nullius n 8. Conquest 9. Christianity 10. Civilization n

Australia & Discovery n n n “Civilization did not begin in Australia until the last quarter of the eighteenth century. ” Clark, A History of Australia (1962) (repeated in Cathcart’s revision 1993). “Aboriginal sovereignty over Australia has been denied in practice and in law. ” Nettheim, 2 L. & Anthro 380 (1987) “plaintiff’s. . . claim of continuing sovereignty in the aboriginal people. . . is inconsistent with the accepted legal foundations of Australia deriving from British occupation and settlement. . ” Coe, (1978) 18 A. L. R. 592, aff’d (1979) 24 A. L. R. 118.

Mabo v. Queensland [No. 2] (1992) 107 A. L. R. 1, 175 CLR 1. “The preferable rule. . . is that a mere change in sovereignty does not extinguish native title to land. ” 107 A. L. R. at 41. n The Court rejected the principle of terra nullius. Id. at 20 -22. n “The lands of this continent were not terra nullius or ‘practically unoccupied’ in 1788. ” Id. at 82 -83. n

Sovereign Subjects (Aileen Moreton. Robinson ed. 2007) n n Falk & Martin quote J Brennan in Mabo “recognition by our common law of the rights and interests in land of the indigenous inhabitants of a settled colony would be precluded if the recognition were to fracture a skeletal principle of our legal system. ” Terra nullius replaced by acquisition of sovereignty & Australia by “Act of State” and is non-justiciable Gary Foley – British law 1788, 3 ways coloniser acquired sovereignty over new territories – conquest & pay; Indigenous populations cede their sovereignty & get paid; terra nullius & no payment Mabo allowed dispossession without compensation

Australian historian David Day Claiming a Continent (2001) n n Three layers to the claim of Euro-Australians to proprietorship of the continent Legal claim asserted by discovery (planting a flag) or conquest Claim of effective proprietorship – physical occupation and dispossession of orig. inhabitants Claim of moral proprietorship (harder to define) but arises over time as supplanting society develops links to landscape and new homeland