BIROn - Birkbeck Institutional Research Online

    Mabo: encountering the epistemic limit of the recognition 'difference'

    Motha, Stewart (1998) Mabo: encountering the epistemic limit of the recognition 'difference'. Griffith Law Review 7 (1), pp. 79-96. ISSN 1038-3441.

    Full text not available from this repository.

    Abstract

    This article contends that while the recognition of difference is an essential precursor to justice for Aboriginal people, it was not accomplished in the High Court's decision in Mabo, which is more appropriately characterised as a recognition of 'sameness'. Law's capacity to address justice depends on the possibility of recognising and understanding the particularity of the claimant; yet current modes of recognising difference have their origins in a liberal humanism and construction of knowledge which loses specificity and difference. The article proceeds through an initial discussion of the non-recognition of difference in Mabo, through an assessment of commentary since the judgment, and onto an examination of the limitations of current modes of understanding 'the other' and an exploration of ways of overcoming those limitations.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Article
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Business and Law > Birkbeck Law School
    Depositing User: Sarah Hall
    Date Deposited: 16 Oct 2018 08:38
    Last Modified: 02 Aug 2023 17:45
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/24656

    Statistics

    Activity Overview
    6 month trend
    0Downloads
    6 month trend
    240Hits

    Additional statistics are available via IRStats2.

    Archive Staff Only (login required)

    Edit/View Item
    Edit/View Item