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The Forum > Article Comments > Men prey on customary law > Comments

Men prey on customary law : Comments

By Jodeen Carney, published 25/7/2006

The Law Council ignores the culture of violence that is destroying many Aboriginal communities.

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The problem with this argument as I see it is that the Law Council was recommending that the ability of the courts to take customary law should not be removed, what you are talking about seems to be more concerned with when that customary law is incorrectly or inappropriately applied by a particular court in a particular case.

Why do we punish people - rehabilitation, deterrence, retribution, justice? Surely in most categories if some of this has already been achieved by customary law, the courts would not be just to ignore that.
Posted by Michael 06, Tuesday, 25 July 2006 1:44:40 PM
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"if customary law is not meant to "lessen the seriousness of violence" why do violent Aboriginal men seek to rely on it for sentencing purposes when the aim of doing so is to lessen the sentence?"

Because criminals will try anything to get off?

http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=4638
Posted by strayan, Tuesday, 25 July 2006 9:18:20 PM
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I remember being very disturbed upon hearing that one of the most righteous and respectable young men that I had ever had the pleasure of knowing, had been charged with murder.

A rapist from his homeland community allegedly re-raped the very same non-Aboriginal nurse after being released from his prison sentence under NT law.

My acquaintance was required, under customary law, to administer justice according to the traditional authority of the community.

The repeat rapist was summarily beaten to death, although according to customary belief, death has quite a different meaning in such circumstances.

I had no doubt that my friend was bound, by customary law, to following the authority of his elders, in much the same sense that a soldier from time to time must take another life under orders. But who is the guilty party in the circumstances that charges of murder are brought, the soldier following orders or the commander that issued them?

It is also worth mentioning that there is a plethora of criticism that the courts are consistently failing to deter recidivism but the same cannot be said in this instance of traditional justice.

The matter is much more complicated than Jodeen Carney's compelling account of anecdotal wrongs. There is an outstanding matter of reconciling sovereign conflict and the implicit rights to justice according to each.
Posted by Neil Hewett, Wednesday, 26 July 2006 7:35:16 AM
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OH are the magistrates that believe a lame interpretation of the cultural appropriateness of such violence Aboriginal?

Come on fair is fair.

It is up to the police and judiciary to ensure that the human rights of victims are upheld.

To blame Indigenous people claiming such violence is cultural simply to get off a charge belittles the role that police and the courts are supposed to have.

How about demanding that the police, judges and other authorities actually do their job.
Posted by Aka, Wednesday, 26 July 2006 11:52:36 PM
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Paper does beat rock. Having, observed such a wonton approach to transparency, as displayed of late in both the popular press re-Mutijulu -Auntie should be ashamed of her self, a point Prof Inglis would agree with me on I’m sure.
Let’s not even bother to mention number 3 in the incumbents so aptly defined.
I am heartened by a friends comment circa: 1999, ‘you know its not that easy to change laws’- she did write quite a few! It’s a job thing. When I hear such emotive diatribe as Ms Carney’s I give praise to Theseus and think ‘woe that our very foundations are under such onerous attach, such betrayal.from within. As Cicero so aptly put it Quid Pro quo. Peace out girl

Viva la revolution, inshallah
Posted by Ibraham, Thursday, 27 July 2006 12:07:34 AM
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Being a white Caucasian I am not conversant with customary law nor am I fully conversant with our legal system.

History is full of examples of the wreckage of good intentions, one only needs to look at feminism. It does not matter whether those intentions were religious, theological, psychological or philosophical. It was always from the perspective that these positions were regarded in someway as being superior and the other position as being inferior.

The position which Anglo-Saxons (this is not confined to just Anglo-Saxons) see their beliefs and values as being superior to that of other races. This is what is known as values conflict. I know better than you, yet very rarely is the dominate culture prepared to acknowledge the damage it created.

Very often the arguments are driven by ‘sophistry’ and the rigid, inflexible position of the ‘sophist’s’.
Posted by JamesH, Thursday, 27 July 2006 7:32:32 AM
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