Terra Nullius
Terra Nullius: A European Self - Justification When the first fleet of British settlers landed in Australia in 1788, Captain Phillip, the commander of the fleet, raised the British flag and claimed, sovereignty over New South Wales. ... In this paper I explore the concept of terra nullius through the dispossession of Australia’s aboriginal population, a recent legal challenge to the concept of terra nullius, and its relevance to similar circumstances in other lands. When the Europeans came to North America, Australia and New Zealand they operated on the principle of “terra nullius”. It comes from the Latin terra for earth or land, and nullius being no one or nobody. ... In 1992, the Australian Mabo case, “which overthrew the legal fiction of terra nullius - that the land of Australia had belonged to no one when the British arrived in 1788, ( Reconciliation)”, was brought against the Queensland government by Eddie Mabo and four other plaintiffs, to seek confirmation of their traditional land rights.