The Invention of Tradition: Property Law as a Knowledge Space for the Appropriation of the South

Griffith Law Review, Vol. 16, No. 2, pp. 375-410, 2007

U of Melbourne Legal Studies Research Paper No. 392

37 Pages Posted: 7 May 2009

See all articles by Lee C. Godden

Lee C. Godden

University of Melbourne - Law School

Abstract

The article explores the issues of how law and space intersect in the area known as 'The South'. It examines the intersection between 'Northern' traditions of law and space and indigenous Australians experience of this 'history'. These intersections are germane to the question of how living in the South should now be understood in terms of the shape and pattern of legal relations. Ultimately, the question of indigenous and local traditions that form patterns of the lived experience of local peoples is mediated through law, but is not entirely subsumed by Northern law. Spatial and temporal existence is culturally embedded, and Aboriginal experience of time, for example, does not adhere to Northern parameters. Accordingly, the interleaving of law, tradition and 'existence' is played out in various ways in the colonial and postcolonial history of the South. Thus the interaction between the imposed legal concept and process, and that lived experience of the peoples of the South (whether we designate it as 'tradition' or not) is what is at issue in framing responses to the question of what it means to be positioned in the South.

Keywords: indigenous Australian, the South, legal relations, local traditions, colonial history

JEL Classification: K30, K32, K39

Suggested Citation

Godden, Lee C., The Invention of Tradition: Property Law as a Knowledge Space for the Appropriation of the South. Griffith Law Review, Vol. 16, No. 2, pp. 375-410, 2007, U of Melbourne Legal Studies Research Paper No. 392, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1399188

Lee C. Godden (Contact Author)

University of Melbourne - Law School ( email )

University Square
185 Pelham Street, Carlton
Victoria, Victoria 3010
Australia

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