Legacies of Luck: Australia's Constitution and National Identity in the 1990s (original) (raw)

The current Australian constitutional debate is placed in the context of Australians' perception of their own identity. Two developments in particular are focussed on. The first is the acknowledgement by the Australian High Court that aboriginal title to land could survive European settlement. The second is the proposal to establish a republic, in the sense of breaking the links with the Crown, on which Australians will vote in a referendum on 6 November 1999. The article argues that both developments have required Australians to confront the constitutional implications of the fact that they are not homogeneous, for the first time. The process is difficult for this reason, but long overdue. Ultimately, the result may be a greater willingness critically to examine other traditional constitutional assumptions. In particular, there are some signs already of greater interest in constitutional mechanisms for protection of rights, hitherto eschewed as both unnecessary and inconsistent with the British constitutional tradition.