Article 1 The Mabo Case https://aiatsis.gov.au/explore/mabo-case The Mabo case was a civil dispute between the state of Queensland and the people of Mer, or Murray Island. It was a civil dispute because no one was being held on trial for a criminal offence. The aim of the Mabo case was to regulate the dispute between the two parties, the 5 plaintiffs and the state of Queensland. The people of Mer had no concept of land ownership preceding the British colonisation and the Meriam people were looking for a remedy in the form of access. The civil breach that has been committed is that the people of Mer believed that this was their land and that they believed that they had the legal rights to it. However, the island of Mer was colonised by the …show more content…
He killed four police officers with his 19-tonne semi-truck while under the influence of methamphetamine and cannabis. Richard Pusey was charged with two counts of perverting the course of justice, driving at a dangerous speed, reckless conduct, endangering life, destruction of evidence and not providing assistance after an incident. Pusey was jailed for 10 months. And in November 2021, Pusey attached photos of dying police officers to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority and was sentenced to a further 10 months in …show more content…
The act, a statutory law, was passed by the Australian Parliament in 1973 and given royal assent on the 18th of September 1973. The Act has been amended twice. Once in 1997, which made minor amendments regarding external territories, and once in 2010, which made major changes to the act. The Death Penalty Abolition Act 1973 was created because of rising beliefs that the death penalty was a human rights issue, and was getting the public more and more aggravated about the cruelty being committed to humans. Not to mention, that the death penalty is irreversible, and if a person were to be found innocent after being executed, it is impossible to undo the execution. The death penalty has been seen as a very cruel way of execution for a long time, prior to Murphy’s introduction of the legislation. The last person to ever receive the death penalty was Ronald Ryan in 1967. Justice Lionel Murphy had been attempting to pass the death penalty legislation since as early as 1968, and though it was heavily backed by senators, it lapsed in the House of Representatives each time. With a new government on December 6, 1972,
The amendments to the Land Title Act 1994 introduced in s. 185(1A) and s. 11A requiring reasonable steps to be taken to ensure the person who executed the instrument as mortgagor is identical with the person who is, or who is about to become, the registered proprietor of the
At the conference he explained the traditional land ownership and inheritance system that his community followed on Mer Island. Afterwards, a lawyer in the audience noted the significance of his speech and suggested there should be a test case to claim land rights through the court system. In 1982, Eddie Koiki Mabo and four Mer islanders took their case of ownership of their lands on Mer Island to the Queensland Supreme Court. With Eddie Mabo as the leader the case became widely known as the ‘Mabo case’. After the court ruled against them, the islanders took the case to the High Court. On 3 June 1992 (ten years later), the court decided in favour of the Islanders and ruled that ‘the Meriam people of the Torres Strait did have native title over their traditional
Eddie Mabo was a recognised Indigenous Australian who fought for his land, Murray Island. Mabo spent a decade seeking official recognition of his people’s ownership of Murray Island (Kwirk, 2012). He became more of an activist, he campaigned for better access for indigenous peoples to legal and medical services, to house, to social services and to education. The Mabo case was a milestone court case which paved the way for fair land rights for indigenous people. The Merriam people wanted to ensure its protection. Eddie Mabo significantly contributed to the civil and land rights of Indigenous people in Australia due to his argument to protect his land rights. In a speech in 1976, at a conference on the redrawing of the Torres Strait border, Mabo articulated a vision for islander self-determination and for an independent Torres Strait Island (Stephson, 2009).
The milestone judicial decision in Cole v Whitfield pronounced a pivotal moment in Australian jurisprudence in relation to the interpretation of s92 of the Australian constitution. This essay will critically analyse the constitutional interpretation approach utilised in Cole v Whitfield. This method will be compared with the interpretational methods exemplified in Commonwealth v Australian Capital Territory. Although within these two cases there appears to be a preference towards a particular interpretational method, each mode has both strengths and weaknesses. Accordingly, the merit of each should be employed in conjunction with one another, where the court deems fit, complementing each other. This may provide a holistic approach to interpreting the constitution.
Hatch, P. (2013, April 5). Eddie Mabo's epic fight for land rights changed Australian law and history. Retrieved from Herald Sun: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-order/fight-for-land-rights-changed-history/story-fnat7jnn-1226613120932
This essay is about the land rights of of Australia and how Eddie Marbo was not happy about his land been taken away from him. In May 1982 Eddie Marbo and four other people of the Murray Islands began to take action in the high court of Australia and confirming their land rights. Eddie Marbo was a torres islander who thought that the Australian laws were wrong and who went to fight and try and change them. He was born in 1936 on Mer which is known as Murray Island. The British Crown in the form of the colony of Queensland became of the sovereign of the islands when they were annexed in1978. They claimed continued enjoyment of there land rights and that had not been validly extinguished by the sovereign. (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2012)
At the commencement of European settlement, Australia inherited the system of land law that existed in England. Before the introduction of Torrens in 1875, a system of registration of deeds was in place in Western Australia. This is a system under which instruments relating to property transactions are recorded on a central register. In Western Australia, priority is decided according to the date of registration, and there is no stipulation concerning the bona fides or valuable consideration given by the...
Opponents of the death punishment lauded the Supreme Court decision in the 1972 ruling that a jury's unregulated option to impose the death penalty led toward a "wanton and freakish pattern of its use" that was cruel and unusual. However, the anti-death penalty lobby was not the outright winners because the court failed to call the death penalty unconstitutional. Just a few years later, capital punishment was back with full force in the United States.
Argumentative Essay on Capital Punishment in Australia Capital punishment is barbaric and inhumane and should not be re-introduced into Australia. Although capital punishment has been abolished, the debate on this topic has never abated. When a particularly heinous crime is committed, this debate arouses strong passions on both sides. Many who advocate the abolition of capital punishment consider the death penalty to be cruel and inhuman, while those who favor of punishment by death see it as a form of just retribution for the gravest of crimes. Determining whether Queensland should re-introduce capital punishment as a sentence will be the focus of this assignment.
The rights and freedoms achieved in Australia in the 20th and 21st century can be described as discriminating, dehumanising and unfair against the Indigenous Australians. Indigenous Australians have achieved rights and freedoms in their country since the invasion of the English Monarch in 1788 through the exploration and development of laws, referendums and processes. Firstly, this essay will discuss the effects of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on the Indigenous Australians through dehumanising and discriminating against them. Secondly, this essay will discuss how Indigenous Australians gained citizenship and voting
By the mid 1960s, the death penalty seemed fated for extinction. Only seven executions were conducted in 1965 and only one in 1966. For about ten years supporters and opposers of capital punishment looked to the Supreme Court for a final ruling on the constitutionality of the death penalty. The word came out in 1976 in the case of Gregg v. Georgia. The court ruled that, " the punishment of death does not violate the Constitution."
Land rights now referred to the continual legal exertion to reclaim ownership of the land and waters that was called home prior to British colonisation (Creative Spirits, 2011). Australian Museum (2015) and Creative Spirits (2011) acknowledge the struggle to gain legal recognition and ownership of Indigenous land is difficult and expensive. Furthermore, the history behind the struggle in earlier years often resulted in violence as Indigenous Australians were dispossessed of their land (Australian Museum, 2015). Subsequently, the struggle for land rights continued through the legal and political systems; as demonstrated in 1982 when Eddie (Koiki) Mabo and four other Meriam people decided to pursue declaration of their customary land rights in the High Court of Australia (Hill, 1995). Based on the findings of Creative Spirits (2011) Indigenous Australian land rights appeared promising in 1983 when the Hawke Government promised legislation to ensure that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s land rights are protected throughout Australia. The legislation was said to permit Indigenous Australians to exercise the right of control over mining on Indigenous Australian land to ensure sacred sites are protected (Creative Spirits, 2011). However, in 1984 the mining companies fought back to repossess control over land. Mining and pastoral industries were considered too powerful and
Americans have argued over the death penalty since the early days of our country. In the United States only 38 states have capital punishment statutes. As of year ended in 1999, in Texas, the state had executed 496 prisoners since 1930. The laws in the United States have change drastically in regards to capital punishment. An example of this would be the years from 1968 to 1977 due to the nearly 10 year moratorium. During those years, the Supreme Court ruled that capital punishment violated the Eight Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. However, this ended in 1976, when the Supreme Court reversed the ruling. They stated that the punishment of sentencing one to death does not perpetually infringe the Constitution. Richard Nixon said, “Contrary to the views of some social theorists, I am convinced that the death penalty can be an effective deterrent against specific crimes.”1 Whether the case be morally, monetarily, or just pure disagreement, citizens have argued the benefits of capital punishment. While we may all want murders off the street, the problem we come to face is that is capital punishment being used for vengeance or as a deterrent.
Kirby, M. 1997, ‘Bill of Rights for Australia – But do we need it?’, viewed 30 March 2014, < http://www.lawfoundation.net.au/ljf/app/&id=/A60DA51D4C6B0A51CA2571A7002069A0>
A contentious issue in current debate is the death penalty and its application in society. The death penalty, also known as capital punishment, occurs when a individual is punished by execution as a consequence of an offence they committed (Taylor, 2014). Although Australia does not practice the death penalty, many countries continue to employ it as a means of justice and uphold its value in society. The death penalty debate is a multifaceted issue, encompassing many aspects of society including ethics and morality, the judicial system, and politics and the economy. It will be argued that the death penalty is a morally dubious and obsolete practice that is no longer relevant in modern judiciary, as it breaches the inviolable human right to life. Ethics and morality are primary arguments for both supporting and opposing the death penalty, as some individuals believe that the death penalty is a immoral practice and others consider that it can be morally justified when prolific crimes are committed. Punishment is fundamental element to any legal system as a means of justice and ensuing that the offender is unable to commit additional crimes; however, in the case of the death penalty there can be dire consequences if the legal system is wrong. Politics and the economy are also greatly influenced by the death penalty as they determine if the practice is maintained. The death penalty breaches a number of human rights laws and some individuals support that it is immoral; however, others consider it to be justifiable due to the heinous actions of the offender.