Indigenous Legal Relations in Australia is a comprehensive and clearly argued text designed to suit the needs of Law and Indigenous Studies students. An integrated series of chapters, utilising case studies and questions to develop arguments on specific issues, this text studies the issues surrounding Indigenous people’s contact with Anglo-Australian law, dealing primarily with the problems the imposed law has had in its relationship with Indigenous people in Australia. This book is broad in scope and covers issues relating to sovereignty, jurisdiction and territorial acquisition; family law and child protection; criminal law, policing and sentencing; land rights and native title; cultural heritage, heritage protection and intellectual property; anti-discrimination law; international human rights law and constitutional law.

• ‘Platform points’ and questions throughout each chapter to encourage detailed discussion and further study.
• Case studies and conceptual questions include excellent material for essays.
• Strong and experienced team of indigenous and non-indigenous authors.
• Chapters inter-relate and build upon each other to form a comprehensive picture of indigenous legal relations in Australia.
• Includes a comparative discussion of state courts in chapter 8.
• Indigenous people’s experience of imposed law in other settler jurisdictions such as NZ, Canada and the US are used for comparison in appropriate sections.

PART ONE: THE LAW OF THE COLONISERS

Chapter 1Dispossession and Colonisation

Chapter 2 Warfare to Welfare: Genocide to Racial Discrimination?

Chapter 3 Reparations and Redress

Chapter 4 Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children’s welfare

PART TWO: EQUAL BEFORE THE LAW: CRIMINALISATION

Chapter 5 Juvenile Justice

Chapter 6 Criminalisation and Policing in Indigenous Communities

Chapter7 Courts, Sentencing and Imprisonment

PART THREE: LAW, LAND AND CULTURE

Chapter 8 Land Rights

Chapter 9 Native Title

Chapter 10 Protecting Culture

PART FOUR: LAW, RIGHTS AND GOVERNANCE

Chapter 11 Racial Discrimination and the Law

Chapter 12 Constitutional Change: Strengthening Rights Protection

Chapter 13 Indigenous Governance: Amending the Mainstream

Chapter 14 A New Order: Self-Determination

Chapter 15 Unfinished Business

Larissa Behrendt – Professor of Law and Director of Research, Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning, University of Technology, Sydney

Chris Cunneen – Professor and Newsouth Global Chair in Criminology, Faculty of Law, The University of New South Wales

Terri Libesman – Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law, University of Technology, Sydney