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Sherry, Cathleen --- "Book Review - Mabo: What the High Court Said and What the Government Did (2nd ed)" [1997] IndigLawB 39; (1997) 4(1) Indigenous Law Bulletin 25


Book Review



Mabo: What the High Court Said and What the Government Did (2nd ed)

by Peter Butt and Robert Eagleson

The Federation Press, Sydney, 1996

Reviewed by Cathleen Sherry

Sadly, the second edition of Peter Butt and Robert Eagleson's Mabo: What the High Court said and what the government did is probably more timely and necessary now than the first edition was when it was published in 1993. The public and political reaction to the Wik decision reveals that there is still widespread and fundamental misunderstanding of the High Court's pronouncements on native title. Indeed, recent comments from Federal and State politicians suggest that there are also fundamental misunderstandings about the High Court itself and the role that it plays in law-making.

Butt and Eagleson's book sets out to counter these misunderstandings by making the Mabo [No. 2] judgment accessible to a wide public audience. Each chapter of the book deals with a significant issue in the case (terra nullius, Crown sovereignty and ownership of land, native title, extinguishment, the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth) etc) by extracting the relevant parts of the various judgments. Bibliographical references and technical terms have been omitted so that the layperson can more easily digest the words of the Court itself.

In addition to the judgment, the second edition tackles the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth) and the official statements of the Coalition government on native title. Butt and Eagleson have provided a succinct summary of both. Of course many of the Coalition's promised actions on native title have been overshadowed by the extreme reaction to the Wik decision in the political, pastoral and mining arenas, but the summary remains a useful reference for the current debate.

Overall, Mabo: What the High Court said and what the government did is an extremely valuable little book. The Mabo [No. 2] decision is arguably the most important decision in Australian legal history. It strikes at the very heart of who we are as a nation. The more people, lawyers and laypeople alike, who read the words of the judges themselves, as opposed to the often misinformed comments of politicians and 'stakeholders' found in the media, the better.

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