Tilting at doctrine in a changing world: the three editions of Henry Reynolds’ The Law of the Land

Abstract

Henry Reynolds’ The Law of the Land was first published in 1987 and advanced a radical reassessment of the history of property ownership in Australia. Reynolds’ work challenged the prevailing legal and historical orthodoxy under which it was assumed that as a consequence of colonisation, the Indigenous peoples of Australia no longer enjoyed any enforceable rights to land arising from their traditional use and occupation. Since its initial publication, The Law of the Land has been reissued in a new and expanded edition twice: first in 1992 and again in 2003. Each of the fresh editions of The Law of the Land contained additional material that was neither a product of new historical research by the author nor a rejoinder to scholarly criticism, but rather a response to changing events in the present. This article analyses the third edition of The Law of the Land and reflects on the evolution of the work in the context of both Reynolds’ proclivities as an historian and shifts in current politics and law.