Smoke, Curtains and Mirrors: The Production of Race Through Time and Title Registration

Law and Critique (2017) DOI :10.1007/s10978-016-9194-z, Forthcoming

35 Pages Posted: 20 Oct 2016

See all articles by Sarah Keenan

Sarah Keenan

University of London - Birkbeck College

Date Written: October 19, 2016

Abstract

This article analyses the temporal effects of title registration and their relationship to race. It traces the move away from the retrospection of pre-registry common law conveyancing and toward the dynamic, future-oriented Torrens title registration system. The Torrens system, developed in early colonial Australia, enabled the production of ‘clean’, fresh titles that were independent of their predecessors. Through a process praised by legal commentators for ‘curing’ titles of their pasts, this system produces indefeasible titles behind its distinctive ‘curtain’ and ‘mirror’, which function similarly to magicians’ smoke and mirrors by blocking particular realities from view. In the case of title registries, those realities are particular histories of and relationships with land, which will not be protected by property law and are thus made precarious. Building on interdisciplinary work which theorises time as a social tool, I argue that Torrens title registration produces a temporal order which enables land market coordination by rendering some relationships with land temporary and making others indefeasible. This ordering of relationships with land in turn has consequences for the human subjects who have those relationships, cutting futures short for some and guaranteeing permanence to others. Engaging with Renisa Mawani and other critical race theorists, I argue that the categories produced by Torrens title registration systems materialise as race.

Suggested Citation

Keenan, Sarah, Smoke, Curtains and Mirrors: The Production of Race Through Time and Title Registration (October 19, 2016). Law and Critique (2017) DOI :10.1007/s10978-016-9194-z, Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2854903

Sarah Keenan (Contact Author)

University of London - Birkbeck College ( email )

Malet Street
London, WC1E 7HX
United Kingdom

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
379
Abstract Views
1,184
Rank
144,084
PlumX Metrics