Includes bibliographical references (pages 408-431) and index.
Contents:
Claiming Possession in New Holland and New Zealand Claiming Possession in New Holland and New Zealand, 1770s-1820s -- Batman's Treaty and the Rise and Fall of Native Title, 1835-1836 -- The South Australian Colonisation Commission, the Colonial Office, and Aboriginal tights in Land, 1834-1837 -- Protection Claims and Sovereignty in the Islands of New Zealand, 1800-1839 -- Making Agreements and a Struggle for Authority, 1839-1840 -- The Land Claims Commission and the Return of the Treaty, 1840- -- A Colony in Crisis and a Select Committee, 1843-1844 -- The Retreat of the Government and the Rise of the Treaty, 1844-1845 -- The Making of Native Title, 1845-1850.
Summary:
"In 1981 a novel question was addressed by an Australian historian, more or less for the first time. Why had the British Crown denied - or failed to recognise - the Aboriginal people's sovereignty and rights in land? Alan Frost argued that this occurred because the British government acted in accordance with the international legal conventions of the mid-eighteenth century, or more especially a particular legal decorum called terra nullius, a Latin word meaning a land without a sovereign or a land belonging to no one."-- Provided by publisher.
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