Aboriginal Customary Law: A Source of Common Law Title to Land

This book presents a comprehensive work addressing the potential legal consequences for Aboriginal rights to land, beyond recognition of native title, ensuing from acknowledgement of the Crown's radical title. This is the first book to address two key issues surrounding this subject: firstly the replacement of the three formally distinct doctrines of reception, continuity and recognition, and secondly that, contrary to the received view, the Crown's radical title does not automatically confer full beneficial ownership of unalienated land in Australia where such land is not subject to native title. Through examining these two theses, Ulla Secher proposes Aboriginal customary law can in fact provide a basis for common law title to land in any settled, yet inhabited, colony.