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  3. Indigenous Rights in Global Context

Indigenous Rights in Global Context (LAWS90127)

Graduate courseworkPoints: 12.5On Campus (Parkville)

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Overview

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October - On Campus
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This highly topical subject analyses the rights of Indigenous peoples in Australia, Canada, the United States and New Zealand. Topics are discussed within a framework of encounter and include land and resource rights; doctrine of discovery; Aboriginal title; human rights; treaties; role of cultural institutions in state narratives; and constitutional freedoms. The subject is taught from a critical perspective, comparing and assessing law’s responses to and attempted control of Indigenous peoples in a global context.

Indicative list of principal topics:

  • History of the concept of Aboriginal title and the doctrine of discovery
  • Concepts of sui generis agreement-making between Indigenous peoples and governments
  • Encounters between governments, public cultural institutions, and Indigenous peoples
  • Implications of government constitutional obligations and Indigenous rights
  • Overview of current practices
  • Human rights and their influence on Indigenous rights

Intended learning outcomes

A student who has successfully completed this subject will:

  • Have a broader understanding of the rule of law and its relationship to colonialism in the selected countries
  • Appreciate the sources of Indigenous legal traditions within Indigenous rights, including the development of an appreciation for the role of non-textual materials in understanding law
  • Identify how Indigenous legal traditions can be made more accessible through formal state legal institutions and Indigenous community mechanisms
  • Develop practical reasoning skills necessary to apply Indigenous law to contemporary problems and conflicts
  • Critically and constructively examine tensions between governments and Indigenous communities
  • Have a sophisticated theoretical and doctrinal understanding of each of the topic areas used in the syllabus to explore the relationship between Indigenous peoples' law and formal state law
  • Distinguish and analogize, compare and contrast, the treatment of Indigenous rights in four jurisdictions
  • Understand the relationship of Indigenous rights to property law, contract law, constitutional law and international law.

Last updated: 19 November 2025