Justice Murray Wilcox of the Federal Court of Australia has just ruled in Bennell v State of Western Australia [2006] FCA 1243 that an aboriginal people, the Noongar, hold 'native title' to portions of the Perth Metropolitan Area. This appears to be roughly equivalent to usufruct in Anglo-American law. Linguistic evidence provided by Nick Thieberger played a significant role in the case. Jane Simpson comments on the decision at the Transient Languages & Cultures blog.
Posted by Bill Poser at September 21, 2006 12:54 AM