UDTR Global Rights of Nature Radar

An Indigenous Lens into Comparative Law: The Doctrine of Discovery in the United States and New Zealand

Identification

Public canonical key

openalex:w1858138266

Authors

Robert James Miller · Jacinta Ruru

Reported year

2008

Reported language

en

Source type

article

First detected

2026-11-09T19:04:47.733147+00:00

Last metadata observation

2026-11-09T19:04:47.733147+00:00

Last HTTP verification

Not checked

Institutions reported by the source

Arizona State University · University of Otago

Reported affiliation countries

NZ · US

Documentary abstract — original language

North America and New Zealand were colonized by England under an international legal principle that is known today as the Doctrine of Discovery. When Europeans set out to explore and exploit new lands in the fifteenth through the twentieth centuries, they justified their sovereign and property claims over these territories and the Indigenous people with the Discovery Doctrine. \n \nThis legal principle was justified by religious and ethnocentric ideas of European and Christian superiority over the other cultures, religions, and races of the world. The Doctrine provided that newly-arrived Europeans automatically acquired property rights in the lands of Native people and gained political and commercial rights over the inhabitants. England was an avid supporter of the Doctrine and used it around the world. \n \nThe English colonial governments and colonists in New Zealand and America, and later the American state and federal governments and New Zealand governments, all utilized Discovery and still use it today to exercise legal rights to Native lands and to control their Indigenous people. \n \nIn this article, the authors, an American Indian and a New Zealand Maori, use a comparative law methodology to trace and compare the legal and historical application of Discovery in both countries. The evidence uncovered helps to explain the current state of United States Indian law and the New Zealand law relating to Maoris. While the countries did not apply the elements of Discovery in the exact same manner, and at the same time periods, the similarities of their use of Discovery are striking and not the least bit surprising since the Doctrine was English law. Viewing American and New Zealand history in light of the international law Doctrine of Discovery helps to expand one's knowledge of both countries and their Indigenous peoples.

Identifiers

OPENALEX

W1858138266

HANDLE

10523/8689

Documentary context

Documentary family

Scholarship

Source-reported types

article

Jurisdictions studied — explicit sources

NZ · US

Natural entities mentioned

Territory

Entity mentions are not evidence of legal recognition. Jurisdiction studied is separate from author affiliation country.

Sources

OpenAlex · Record 1 · Record 2 · Record 3

• Document · http://hdl.handle.net/10523/8689
• Handle · https://hdl.handle.net/10523/8689
• OpenAlex · https://openalex.org/W1858138266

Documented bibliographic relations

Source-declared references and links; they do not establish legal support or UGLC qualification. Up to 20 outgoing references are displayed.

1 incoming references within the detected corpus

Documentary status

Relevance pending

Library

This identity is not yet included in the Legal Library.