Discovering Indigenous Lands: The Doctrine of Discovery in the English Colonies

TLDR: In this paper, the legal adoption of the doctrine of discovery in the United States and its adoption in Canada is discussed. And the authors conclude that the still permeating influence of the Doctrine of Discovery in Aotearoa/New Zealand: 1970s-2000s.

Abstract: 1. The Doctrine of Discovery 2. The Legal Adoption of Discovery in the United States 3. The Doctrine of Discovery in United States History 4. The Doctrine of Discovery in Canada 5. Contemporary Canadian Resonance of an Imperial Doctrine 6. The Doctrine of Discovery in Australia 7. Asserting the Doctrine of Discovery in Australia 8. Asserting the Doctrine of Discovery in Aotearoa New Zealand: 1840-1960s 9. The Still Permeating Influence of the Doctrine of Discovery in Aotearoa/New Zealand: 1970s-2000s 10. Concluding Comparatively: Discovery in the English Colonies

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March 31, 2011
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29236
Discovering Indigenous Lands (9780199579815) @ $120.00/$96.00
9780199579815 $120.00/$96.00
Discovering Indigenous Lands:
The Doctrine of Discovery in the English Colonies
Robert J. Miller, Professor, Lewis & Clark Law School; Jacinta Ruru, Senior Law
Lecturer, University of Otago; Larissa Behrendt, Professor of Law and Director of
Research, University of Technology; Tracey Lindberg, Professor of Law, University
of Ottawa and Athabasca University
This book presents new material and shines fresh light on the under-
explored historical and legal evidence about the use of the doctrine of
discovery in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States.
North America, New Zealand and Australia were colonized by England
under an international legal principle that is known today as the doctrine of
discovery. When Europeans set out to explore and exploit new lands in the
fifteenth through to the twentieth centuries, they justified their sovereign and
property claims over these territories and the indigenous peoples with the
discovery doctrine. This legal principle was justified by religious and
ethnocentric ideas of European and Christian superiority over the other
cultures, religions, and races of the world. The doctrine provided that newly-
arrived Europeans automatically acquired property rights in the lands of
indigenous peoples and gained political and commercial rights over the
inhabitants. The English colonial governments and colonists in North
America, New Zealand and Australia all utilized this doctrine, and still use it
today to assert legal rights to indigenous lands and to assert control over
indigenous peoples.
Written by indigenous legal academics - an American Indian from the
Eastern Shawnee Tribe, a New Zealand Maori (Ngati Rawkawa and Ngai Te
Rangi), an Indigenous Australian, and a Cree (Neheyiwak) in the country
now known as Canada, Discovering Indigenous Lands provides a unique
insight into the insidious historical and contemporary application of the
doctrine of discovery.
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS