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Publication: Oceania
Publication Date: 01-SEP-04
Delivery: Immediate Online Access
Author: Weiner, James F.

Article Excerpt
In a recent review of a book (2002) on native title corporations that was jointly authored by an anthropologist and a legal scholar I ended by observing 'how easy it is for lawyers and anthropologists to talk past each other, and how resiliently different disciplines impose limits to their own mode of theorization'. Edmond's legal analysis of the opinions of anthropological expertise proffered in the post-Royal Commission Hindmarsh Island Bridge litigation gives me no reason to alter that opinion.

I read Edmond's article very shortly after I had written a commentary on the recent Federal Court decision Jango v Northern Territory (No. 2), (1) and my opinion is that Edmond's article illuminates the same problems I identified in Sackville J's judgement. In this comment, I am going to continue pointing out how anthropological and legal perspectives continue to travel past each other.

Let me start with Edmond's invocation of the case of Voli as a comment on how the anthropologist's task should be construed. Edmond notes that in that case, 'the High Court made no attempt to distinguish the expert's extra curial activities from...

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