Evidence Law

"Collection of 11 essays that examine the implications and ramifications of the Mabo decision on Australia and its law. Discusses such topics as the constitutional background to the decision, public law aspects, the admissibility of traditional evidence, the implications for Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, and native title and pastoral leases. Contributors include Frank Brennan, Henry Reynolds, Bryan Keon-Cohen, Darrell Lumb, Margaret Stephenson and K E Mulqueeny. Includes notes on contributors, references and a foreword by Sir Harry Gibbs, a former Chief Justice of the High Court.

"Although there was no Canadian law enforcement in the Eastern High Arctic when a crazed white fur trader was killed by an Inuk, authorities put Nuqallaq and two other Baffin Island Inuit on trial. The Canadian government saw Robert Janes's death as murder; the Inuit saw it as removing a threat from their society according to custom. Nuqallaq was sentenced to ten years hard labour in Stony Mountain Penitentiary where he contracted tuberculosis. He died shortly after being returned to Pond Inlet.

"In 1973, the Supreme Court's historic Calder decision on the Nisga'a community's title suit in British Columbia launched the Native rights litigation era in Canada. Legal claims have raised questions with significant historical implications, such as, "What treaty rights have survived in various parts of Canada? What is the scope of Aboriginal title? Who are the Métis, where do they live, and what is the nature of their culture and their rights?"

"The forums that were established during the second half of the twentieth century to address Aboriginal land claims have led to a particular way of engaging with and presenting Aboriginal, colonial, and national histories. The history that comes out of these land claim forums is often attacked for being "presentist": interpreting historical actions and actors through the lens of present day values, practices, and concerns.