“Native” Landscapes,“Cultivated” Gardens and the Erasure of Indigenous Sovereignty in Two Recent Instances of Australian Cinematic Jurisprudence

Abstract

Although cinema is now commonly recognized as a significant source of knowledge about law, in this article I argue that it is also a space in which law is questioned, rethought and reimagined. Outside the traditional realms of legal philosophy, cinema is a pre-eminent site of jurisprudence. To illustrate this, I examine the recent films The Proposition (2005) and Australia (2009) as they each critique and justify the sovereignty of a specific legal order over a particular landscape. As part of an Australian tradition of “unease” concerning legal authority, these films provide compelling instances of cinematic jurisprudence.