Australian Critical Decisions : Remembering Koowarta and Tasmanian Dams

The 1980s was a time of tumultuous social, political and cultural change for communities all over the world. In Australia law was pivotal to those changes. This book brings together for the first time two famous High Court decisions of the 1980s- Koowarta v Bjelke-Petersen and the Tasmanian Dams case - to explore not only their legal relationship and legacy, but how the experiences of Australians with their law, on matters of race and the environment, shaped the times. The book’s contributors explore the drama of how these cases were brought before the court and decided- as well as reflect on the cases’ ongoing significance in Australian life, law and history.

The 1980s was a time of significant social, political and cultural change. In Australia, the law was pivotal to these changes. The two High Court cases that this book explores – Koowarta v Bjelke-Petersen (1982) and the Tasmanian Dams case (1983) – are famous legally as they marked a decisive reckoning by the Court with both international law and federal constitutionalism. Yet these cases also offer a significant marker of Australia in the 1980s: a shift to a different form of political engagement, nationally and internationally, on complex questions about race and the environment. This book brings these cases together for the first time. It does so to explore not only the legal legacy and relationship between Koowarta and Tasmanian Dams, but also to reflect on how Australians experience their law in time and place, and why those experiences might require more than the usual legal records. The authors include significant figures in Australian public life, some of whom were key participants in the cases, as well as established and respected scholars of law, history, environment and Indigenous studies. This collection offers a combination of personal recollections of the cases, as well as a consideration of their ongoing significance in Australian life.

This book was originally published as two special issues of the Griffith Law Review.