Aboriginal Identity: Legislative, Judicial, and Administrative Definitions

Abstract

In this paper it is not proposed to canvass the various theories which sociologists and political scientists have formulated to explain the process by which laws are made. My intention is to show how the same expressions to define or describe Aborigines as special subjects of special laws, or as special subjects by uneven and unequal operation of the same law, recur, but in different legislatures and different areas, and on widely differing time-scales. In doing so, the effect on policy may be seen more easily.