THE ORGANIZING PRINCIPLES OF ABORIGINAL JUSTICE

Abstract

The various procedures that constitute the repertoire of traditional Australian Aboriginal justice revolve around three dimensions. These three formal criteria correspond to social issues. Symmetry expresses a situation where guilt is not recognized. The mode of designation reflects both the individual or collective nature of the accused party and the willingness, if necessary, to circumscribe the effects of the legal proceedings. Moderation, for its part, highlights a general principle of Australian law, that of modulation: the theoretically strict compensation for damages required by the Law of Talion is either lightened-towards a moderate procedure-or, on the contrary, aggravated , depending on the social relations prevailing between the two parties. This approach also makes it possible to understand how war, which in Australia is mainly, if not exclusively, of a judicial nature, derives from the feud, of which it is an unbridled modality.