LAW4197 - Current issues in indigenous rights: international, comparative and regional perspectives

Offered

Not offered in 2007

Synopsis

The issues covered include: 1) the original inhabitants; 2) the colonizers and their law: 1500 - 1900; 3) constitutional and Governance arrangements incl. sovereignty, treaties between original occupiers and settling states; the administration of first nations, and reconciliation experiences; 4) land tenure, emphasis on resource exploitation and resolution of conflict; 5) criminal justice systems, particularly special measures to cope with custom and tradition; and 6) heritage protection, with emphasis on sites and artistic expression. The jurisdictions examined: Common Law, Common Law/Civil Law, Civil Law and the European Union with emphasis on developing jurisprudence in minority rights.

Objectives

To familiarise students with legal issues arising, commonly and to variable degrees, in common law and civil jurisdictions, in the area of settler-indigenous relations; to better equip students to understand the substance, and national and international context, of issues arising in Australia; and to better equip students to contribute, in practice, to the resolution of those legal issues.

Assessment

Examination (2 hours writing time plus 30 minutes reading and noting time): 100% OR Examination (1 hour writing time plus 15 minutes reading and noting time): 50%
Research essay (4000 words)

Prerequisites

LAW1100 or LAW1101 and LAW1102 or LAW1104