Property as Governance: Time, Space and Belonging in Australia's Northern Territory Intervention

Abstract

This article analyses two cases brought by aboriginal Australians against the Australian government acquisition of long leases of their land under the Northern Territory National Emergency Response Act 2007. These leases are conspicuous, particularly in that the government always made it clear that it would not take up its right to exclusive possession of the leased land, and has not done so. The leases have not been used to evict residents, as some feared; nor to pursue mining or agricultural activity. Socio‐legal theories centered on the right to exclusive possession cannot account for these leases. The article explores the use of property under the 2007 Act, the legal geographies of the areas subject to the leases and the political potency of property beyond exclusive possession, and suggests an understanding of property as a spatially contingent relation of belonging. Specifically, the article argues that property is productive of temporal and spatial order and so can function as a tool of governance.

Lucha Silenciosa Por El Derecho (Indígena) a La Ciudad: Comodatos Mapuche en El A.M. De Santiago De Chile

“…Siguiendo esa lógica de la práctica social de la propiedad, los comodatos pueden entenderse como forma de disciplina sobre grupos marginalizados, según se desprende del análisis de Keenan (2013) sobre un conflicto en el Northern Territory de Australia. Al respcto, el gobierno federal australiano adquirió comodatos de forma compulsoria sobre los asentamientos informales donde reside la población indígena de la municipalidad de Alice Springs.…”

Property and place attachment: a legal geographical analysis of biodiversity law reform in New South Wales

“…Place attachment has been occasionally related to property (Keenan, ; Graham, ; Moore, ); to identity and belonging (Keenan, ); to social belonging (Berry, ) and social identity (Larsen, ); to territoriality (Taylor et al ., ; Brighenti, ); to material possession (Kleine and Baker, ); and to territory (Elden, , 811; Bryan, ). The most relevant studies to this analysis are those on the relationship between farming and place attachment (Gray, ; Cheshire et al ., ), property and territory (Soja, ; Elden, ; Blomley, ), and territoriality (Sack, ).…”

“…The relationships between property and place attachment are often overlooked in property scholarship. Conventionally, the relevant literature refers to place mostly as ‘land’ (rather than water) and in socio‐political terms as ‘territory’; in economic terms, it is defined as a repository of natural resources over which rights are created and distributed, rather than as the basis of enduring people–place relationships (Keenan, 2010; 2013; Moore, ).…”

Unconventional Gas in Australia: Towards a Legal Geography

“…More recently, a legal geography slant has proved attractive to those investigating siting disputes through an environmental justice lens (e.g., Jessup, ). Other socio‐legal arenas may assist in informing that research direction in the future (e.g., analysis of the Commonwealth's 2007 Northern Territory Emergency Response, see Keenan [] and Crabtree []).…”