Anywhere But Here
Race and Empire in the Mabo Decision
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2992136 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Emma Cunliffe (0000-0002-8888-3252, University of British Columbia, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2007 |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 751-768 |
| Publication date | 2007-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Identities (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1350-4630 • E-ISSN: 1363-0296 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13504630701696435 |
| OpenAlex | W1979071111 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 8 |
The High Court of Australia's decision in Mabo v. Queensland (No. 2) is among the most widely known and controversial decisions the Court has yet delivered. In this article, I explore the competing visions of legal history that are implicit within Brennan, J.'s leading judgment and Dawson, J.'s dissent. In particular, I discuss the ways in which both of these judgments render an incomplete and contradictory documentary record more coherent than it really is. Suggesting that neither judgment manages to escape the traces of racism, I argue that the alternative approaches tell us more about the fault lines within contemporary Australian political discourse than they do about the Australian colonial past. I conclude that Brennan, J.'s efforts to render contemporary justice for past wrongs against indigenous Australians deserve acknowledgement, though his judgment is ultimately constrained by the force at the heart of the Australian common law. Much more remains to be done before the Australian common law can be said to recognise indigenous Australian cultures as complex, changeable, and contemporary
Acknowledgement · Colonialism · Common law · Dissent · Economic Justice · High Court · Indigenous · Indigenous rights · Judgement · Legal culture · Legal history · Political science · Politics · Racism · Sociology · Vision · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Gender Studies · History · Law · Law in Society and Culture · New Caledonia Indigenous Studies
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,16 |
| Citation span | 2007 - 2014 (8) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |