Research and Public Policy Series

Sentencing in customary Australia : an overview of the issues

Rick Sarre
Head, School of Law and Legal Practice, University of South Australia

Published in:
Proceedings of Roundtable on Sentencing and Indigenous Peoples convened by the Australian Institute of Criminology and the University of South Australia, on 31 October 1997
Rick Sarre and Digby Wilson (eds)
ISBN 0 642 24077 9 ; ISSN 1326-6004
Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology, 1998
(Research and Public Policy Series, no. 16)
{Cover title: Sentencing and Indigenous peoples}

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Abstract

The issue under discussion in this paper is the role of sentencing and in particular the persistence of the custodial sentence for indigenous offenders in Australian courts. Sarre provides a brief history of customary law and considers whether there is an obligation under international law to recognise customary rights.