This working paper compiles a number of pieces by participants from a seminar to discuss the federal government’s recently announced intentions to enact new voter ID requirements for federal elections—a proposal that raises questions of constitutionality and broader democratic policy.

INTRODUCTION: Proposals for the establishment of an Indigenous advisory body within the Australian Constitution are genuinely innovative and exciting. Designing such a body is a challenge. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians have long sought better political representation. Indigenous Australians constitute approximately 3 per cent...

Can Northern Territory fishers trawl coastal waters that lie within the boundaries of Aboriginal land, without the consent of traditional owners? That was the legal question tested in the High Court over two days in early December 2007. The answer, due later this year, will...

The ability of dissents to pave the way for change in the law is regularly cited as one of their virtues. But this examination of a period of the court’s recent history shows that the direct reversal of a precedent in favour of the minority...

Sean Brennan reviews two key sets of changes contained in the 2006 Amendment Act. It does so against the backdrop of the Land Rights Act’s chequered political history, in which bipartisan endorsement and ideological antagonism have jostled for priority.