Week 1 Australian Legal History The ‘Reception’ of English Law Colonisation  Australia colonised by Great Britain in 1788  Was Australia settled, conquered or ceded?  Conquered- fight to take the territory from its original inhabitants  Ceded- process of negotiation  Settled (as a matter of law: Mabo v Qld (No 2) (1992)) Indigenous Law  Australia was deemed ‘settled’ despite having been populated by indigenous communities  The High Court decision in Mabo (No 2) (1992) held that Australia was not terra nullius (‘noones land’). But:  The British Crown still acquired sovereignty and the right to parcel out the land, without indigenous people’s consent;  Australia is still classed as ‘settled’ from the point of view of international law – hence, no traditional law is directly enforceable in Australian courts;  Indigenous ownership of land (‘native title’) may still be recognised, by the common law, in some cases.  Traditional indigenous law still operates, in many places, as a matter of fact. It is also sometimes taken into account by the Australian legal system (for example, in sentencing).