Narrative Report to Law Reform Commission of Australia on Results of Field Trip to the Northern Territory Pursuant to the Reference on Customary Law

Abstract

This submission to the Law Review Commission of Australia (later the Australian Law Review Commission) makes recommendations regarding to what extent existing courts or Aboriginal communities themselves should be empowered to apply Aboriginal customary law and practices in the trial, punishment, and rehabilitation of Aboriginal offenders. The report is based on field interviews in six Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory of Australia as well police, magistrates, solicitors, legal aid field officers, the Crown Solicitor of the Northern Territory; and community advisors and staff of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs. The report discusses the relationship between indigenous law and the western law system derived from the British common law system as one of legal pluralism — more than on legal process at work in the same environment at the same time — and draws comparisons between legal pluralism as it exists in Australia with the situation in Alaska.