The Vulnerability of Indigenous Land Rights in Australia and Canada

Not until the 1990s did the highest courts in Australia and Canada begin to address the colonial reality of the dispossession of the Indigenous peoples. In Australia, the High Court has held that the taking of Indigenous lands and creation of third party rights by the Crown resulted in extinguishment of Native title. In Canada, while not dealing directly with the issue of extinguishment, the Supreme Court has authorized infringement of Aboriginal land rights for a variety of purposes, including the creation of third party rights. This article examines the legal justifications for these conclusions and finds that they are not consistent with long-standing principles and precedents of the common law. The explanations for these judicial opinions, the author argues, can be found instead in economic and political considerations that have been influencing the courts. He suggests that this is a reality Indigenous peoples need to take into account when deciding whether to expose their rights to the judicial authority of the Australian and Canadian states