Detailed examination of the scope for recognition of customary laws through existing common law rules; human rights and problems of relativity of standards; contact experience; constitutional aspects; marriage and family structures; recognition of traditional marriage; protection and distribution of property; child custody, fostering and adoption; the criminal justice system; customary law offences; police investigation and interrogation; issues of evidence and procedure including unsworn statements, juries and interpreters; proof of customary law including scope of expert evidence; taking of evidence including group evidence, secrecy and privileged communications; customary methods of dispute settlement; special Aboriginal courts and justice schemes; relations with police; traditional hunting, fishing and gathering practices; relevant case law and legislation considered throughout.

Described as 'ground-breaking' in Kent McNeil's Foreword, this book develops an alternative approach to conventional Aboriginal title doctrine. It explains that aboriginal customary law can be a source of common law title to land in former British colonies, whether they were acquired by settlement or by conquest or cession from another colonising power. The doctrine of Common Law Aboriginal Customary Title provides a coherent approach to the source, content, proof and protection of Aboriginal land rights which overcomes problems arising from the law as currently understood and leads to more just results. The doctrine's applicability in Australia, Canada and South Africa is specifically demonstrated. While the jurisprudential underpinnings for the doctrine are consistent with fundamental common law principles, the author explains that the Australian High Court's decision in Mabo provides a broader basis for the doctrine: a broader basis which is consistent with a re-evaluation of case-law from former British colonies in Africa, as well as from the United States, New Zealand and Canada. In this context, the book proffers a reconceptualisation of the Crown's title to land in former colonies and a reassessment of conventional doctrines, including the doctrine of tenure and the doctrine of continuity. 'With rare exceptions ... the existing literature does not probe as deeply or question fundamental assumptions as thoroughly as Dr Secher does in her research. She goes to the root of the conceptual problems around the legal nature of Indigenous land rights and their vulnerability to extinguishment in the former colonial empire of the Crown. This book is a formidable contribution that I expect will be influential in shifting legal thinking on Indigenous land rights in progressive new directions.' From the Foreword by Professor Kent McNeil (to read the Foreword please click on the 'sample chapter' link).

This volume of the Indigenous Justice series explores the global effects of marginalizing Indigenous law. The essays in this book argue that European-based law has been used to force Indigenous peoples to assimilate, has politically disenfranchised Indigenous communities, and has destroyed traditional Indigenous social institutions. European-based law not only has been used as a tool to infringe upon Indigenous human rights, it also has been used throughout global history to justify environmental injustices, treaty breaking, and massacres. The research in this volume focuses on the resurgence of traditional law, tribal–state relations in the United States, laws that have impacted Native American women, laws that have failed to protect Indigenous sacred sites, the effect of international conventions on domestic laws, and the role of community justice organizations in operationalizing international law. While all of these issues are rooted in colonization, Indigenous peoples are using their own solutions to demonstrate the resilience, persistence, and innovation of their communities. With chapters focusing on the use and misuse of law as it pertains to Indigenous peoples in North America, Latin America, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, this book offers a wide scope of global injustice. Despite proof of oppressive legal practices concerning Indigenous peoples worldwide, this book also provides hope for amelioration of colonial consequences.

The essays in this book present important perspectives on the role of Indigenous legal traditions in reclaiming and preserving the autonomy of Aboriginal communities and in reconciling the relationship between these communities and Canadian governments. Although Indigenous peoples had their own systems of law based on their social, political, and spiritual traditions, under colonialism their legal systems have often been ignored or overruled by non-Indigenous laws. Today, however, these legal traditions are being reinvigorated and recognized as vital for the preservation of the political autonomy of Aboriginal nations and the development of healthy communities.

For years, traditional laws – or customary laws – in Asia have been eroded. This report argues that remaining customary laws should be retained and discusses the extent to which their erosion can be reversed. Traditional Customary Laws and Indigenous Peoples in Asia focuses primarily on two types of customary law systems – personal or family law, and land and resource rights law – and considers the complex situation, which is far from uniform throughout Asia. For example, in some areas customary law systems and procedures are generally respected, while in other parts of Asia, customary law has been so eroded that it is virtually nonexistent and unrecognized by governments. There are also many examples that fall between these two situations. The author discusses the many challenges facing indigenous peoples in the pursuit of their customary law rights and many of the issues that have yet to be resolved within customary law systems. These include the occasional conflict between women’s rights and customary rights. The report focuses on the situation in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh, as well as including numerous examples from the Cordilleras in the Philippines; Jharkhand, Mizoram and Nagaland in India; northern Thailand; and Sabah and Sarawak in Malaysia, among others. Traditional Customary Laws and Indigenous Peoples in Asia is essential reading for indigenous peoples, nonindigenous government and political leaders and officials, staff of donor and development institutions and NGOs, and international bodies such as the United Nations.

"Abstract Global legal pluralism has become one of the leading analytical frameworks for understanding and conceptualizing law in the twenty-first century"--