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''Milirrpum v Nabalco Pty Ltd'', (1971) 17 FLR 141 (the "Gove land rights case"), was the first litigation on native title in Australia. The decision of Justice Richard Blackburn ruled against the claimants on a number of issues of law and fact, rejecting the doctrine of aboriginal title recognizing that in the law of the time of British colonisation of Australia there was a distinction between settled colonies, where the land, being “desert and uncultivated”, was claimed by right of occupancy, and conquered or ceded colonies. The term “desert and uncultivated” included territory in which resided "uncivilized inhabitants in a primitive state of society". The decision noted that the Crown had the power to extinguish native title, if it existed.〔Milirrpum v Nabalco Pty Ltd, (1971) 17 FLR 141〕 The issue of ''terra nullius'', later raised in ''Mabo v Queensland (No 2)''(1992), was not contemplated in this decision. Although ''Milirrpum'' was not appealed beyond the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory, it was overruled by the High Court of Australia two decades later in ''Mabo v Queensland (No 2)'' (1992). Blackburn, in a confidential memorandum to the government and opposition, opined that a system of Aboriginal land rights was "morally right and socially expedient".〔National Archives of Australia, confidential memorandum provided to government and opposition by Justice Blackburn urging the establishment of a statutory system of land rights, 1972, released 31 December 2001〕 The judgement concludes: "I cannot help being specially conscious that for the plaintiffs it is a matter in which their personal feelings are involved."〔(1971) 17 FLR 141 at 293.〕 ==Background== (詳細はYolngu people living in Yirrkala, who were the traditional owners of the Gove Peninsula in Arnhem Land, obtained writs in the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory against the Nabalco Corporation, which had secured a twelve-year bauxite mining lease from the Federal Government. Their goal was to establish in law their rightful claim to their homelands. The Yolngu people claimed they enjoyed legal and sovereign rights over their land and sought declarations to occupy the land free from interference pursuant to their native title rights. The Yolngu people had petitioned the Australian House of Representatives in August 1963 with a bark petition after the government sold part of the Arnhem Land reserve on 13 March of that year to a bauxite mining company. The government had not consulted the traditional owners at the time. Yolngu applicants asserted before the Court that since time immemorial, they held a “communal native title” that had not been validly extinguished, or acquired under the Lands Acquisition Act 1955 (Cth), and should be recognized as an enforceable proprietary right. The lengthy legal battle culminated in 1971.〔Foley, Gary 'Teaching the whites a lesson' in ''Staining the wattle'' (ed) Very Burgmann and Jenny Lee Ringwood; Penguin, 1988 p203〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Milirrpum v Nabalco Pty Ltd」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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