Mabo case

History glossary

Also called: Mabo judgement · Topic: Settler Colonialism: Native Peoples of America and Australia · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 6 "Displacing Indigenous Peoples"

Meaning

The Mabo case was a decision of Australia's High Court in 1992. The court said that terra nullius was legally invalid. Terra nullius means "land belonging to nobody", and it was the old claim that Australia had no owners before the British arrived. The ruling accepted that natives had rights to land going back to before 1770.

Example

The case was brought by Eddie Mabo, a Torres Strait Islander. Unlike the USA, Canada and New Zealand, Australia had never signed treaties with its natives because it treated the land as empty. The 1992 judgement overturned that claim.

Don't confuse with

  • Legislation: terra nullius was ended by a court judgement, not by a law passed in Parliament. This is a common trap in exam questions.

Related concepts

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