The Leading eBooks Store Online

for your Apple or Android device, Nook, Kobo, PC, Mac, Sony Reader...

New to eBooks.com?

Learn more

One Law for All

Aboriginal People and criminal law in early South Australia

One Law for All
Add to cart
US$ 31.95 (+ tax)

In the planned colony of South Australia, Aboriginal people were to be British subjects, accountable to English law, but fully entitled to its protection. However, the dreams of London’s reformers rapidly soured as British law struggled to protect the settlers’ interests and failed to protect Aboriginal lives and birthrights.

One Law for All is the first study of the stories behind the court appearances. It reveals the people who developed relationships across the racial divide: Aboriginal people confused about why they were facing a magistrate and deciding whether to resist the invaders or move quietly into their society; colonists struggling to keep their pastoral enterprises going, and finding there was more to the story than they thought; officials working with inadequate resources and lawyers mounting arguments to keep their Aboriginal clients out of gaol; and, a Chief Justice trying to apply English law to Indigenous citizens.

Using rarely discussed documents, Pope reveals how the complexities played out and where, despite the rhetoric, Aboriginal people were treated poorly.

Aboriginal Studies Press; January 2011
276 pages; ISBN 9780855757878
Read online, or download in EPUB or secure PDF format

Contents

List of Tables vi
Preface viibr
Map x

Chapter 1 Introduction 1
Chapter 2 Legal policy and early practice 9
Chapter 3 Amenability and Jurisdiction 26
Chapter 4 Admitting Aboriginal evidence 41
Chapter 5 Language problems 56
Chapter 6 Inter se jurisdiction 70
Chapter 7 Murder and manslaughter 88
Chapter 8 Assault and Robbery 105
Chapter 9 Property offences 119
Chapter 10 Protected by the law? 135
Chapter 11 Conclusions and observations 157

Appendix Cases involving Aboriginal people 174
1836-1862 174
Notes 192
Bibliography 234
Index 243