The rule of law, betrayal and reparation

Abstract

This chapter first locates the fine promises given in the South Australian Letters Patents to respect the rights of Aborigines in the context of five centuries of European ambivalence towards the rights of indigenous people(s)- the rhetoric, the reality and its rationalisation. These types of promises to recognise indigenous individual and international legal personality abound from the fifteenth century on. Instead of respect for the rule of law and the principle of pacta sunt servanda (that is, that agreements must be honoured) the reality for indigenous people worldwide has been denial, repudiation or trivialisation o[these norms in the name of progressing colonial projects.

The chapter examines unique aspects of the Australian rhetoric and South Australia's contradictory history. It explores what has been done and what remains to be done towards reconciliation. Steps in a process for reconciliation and peace building, premised on distributing justice, are suggested.