Abstract:
Using the theft of Indigenous land and territory and the destruction of Indigenous political authorities as its central case, this paper examines two theories of territorial rights in relation to their treatment of historical territorial injustices. We apply Simmons’ historical theory of rights over territory, and the occupancy/self-determination theory of territorial rights associated with Moore and Stilz, to three problems: the Continuity Problem, the Particularity Problem, and the Distributive Justice Problem. We argue that the occupancy/self-determination theory is more promising for resolving all three, but that the historical title theory can also be modified to accommodate this insight.
Keywords: historical injustice; rectifying injustice; reparative justice; territory; land; Indigenous title; settler colonialism; Simmons; Stilz; Moore; reconciliation.
'DynamiTE lunchtime seminars' are a part of the project 'Dynamic Territories'. This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 948964).