Land and Freedom

Contents: Origins: Introduction; Husbanding the earth and hedging out the poor, Laura Brace. The Empire of Property: Introduction; Colonization, civilization and cultivation: early Victorians’ theories of property rights and sovereignty, Pat Moloney; Strangers in their own land: capitalism, dispossession and the law, A.R. Buck. The Land Question: Introduction; They seem to argue that custom has made a higher law formal and informal law on the frontier, Peter Karsten; The recognition of Aboriginal status and laws in the supreme court of New South Wales under Forbes C.J. 1824-1836, Bruce Kercher; Property rights and the discourse of improvement in nineteenth century New South Wales, Nancy E. Wright and A.R. Buck; Raupatu: the punitive confiscation of Maori land in the 1860s, Bryan Gilling; The Canadian Doukhobors and the land question: religious communalists on a fee-simple world, John McLaren. Challenges: Introduction; Aboriginal title and the state’s fiduciary obligations, Stuart Rush, Q.C.; Freedom, serfdom and Internet governance: private domain or cyber commons?, Paul Havemann; Index.

A.R. Buck, University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada;


John McLaren, University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada;


Nancy E. Wright, University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada;