KOFFEE'S PHRASES

According to the Pocket Oxford Dictionary (Turner 1984), law is the:

- rule established among a community and enjoining or prohibiting certain action (and) the system made up of these rules, its controlling power, the order produced by it, its administration, . . . the courts administering it . . .

Historical Context of Australian Law

•Significance of 1788 European settlement in Aust
•Nature of English legal system then
•Supremacy of legislation by parliament
–NB parl franchise limited until 1867 (men) and 1921(women)
•Judge made and interpreted law influential
•Equity a separate system to correct defects

Evolution of Australian legal system

•Clash of perceptions
•English written & formal legal system
•Settled habits-individual property rights
•Indigenous people-nomadic, group oriented, oral culture& evolved custom based legal system
•Perceived as terra nullius with dispossessionary consequences.

Achievement of independent legal system
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