Victoria is the first state to pass legislation to begin a treaty process with Indigenous Australians.
As treaty negotiations begin in Victoria, each party will have to accept the other’s legitimacy; that their own power is not absolute and unconditional.
Victoria’s proposed Indigenous treaty may run into problems over the issue of Aboriginal sovereignty.
Enthusiasm for Indigenous treaties at the state and territory level is misplaced. The power to bring about real change lies only at federal level.
Palestinian protesters run for cover from Israeli teargas in May.
The UN's Responsibility to Protect framework for safeguarding civilians against atrocities could help resolve the Gaza crisis.
Native title - the legal recognition of Indigenous Australian land rights - is determined under domestic law, not international law.
In an article published in the lead up to Australia Day, WA Liberal Party policy committee chairman Sherry Sufi said "native title can only exist if Australia was settled, not invaded". Is that right?
Warda Naili poses for a photograph at a park in Montreal in October. Naili, a convert to Islam, said she decided to cover her face out of a desire to practise her faith more authentically and to protect her modesty. Bill 62 forces women to remove their niqabs while using public services.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes
Bill 62 is likely to trigger even tenser controversies on Quebecois identity before next year's provincial election. A historical perspective helps us understand the connection to Quebec sovereignty.
Anti-government protesters march in Guatemala City, Guatemala, Sept. 20, 2017.
What happens when outsiders step in with good intentions? As the crisis in Guatemala shows, it's complicated.
A clueless Tory government and a degenerate EU bureaucracy are locked in a pointless conflict. There must be something more than this.
Indigenous games like ‘Honour Water’ can teach Indigenous values and ceremonial practices.
Honour Water/Elizabeth LaPensée
A strengthening movement of Indigenous designers and developers is working to show Indigenous cultures, teachings, languages and ways of knowing through video games.
Trump and California Governor Jerry Brown have already had their run-ins.
A new federalism? Trump's decision to green-light the Dakota Access Pipeline and early battles with states show a disregard for the sovereignty of domestic government bodies.
After the Army Corps of Engineers approved an easement for the North Dakota Pipeline, two tribes requested – unsuccessfully – to halt construction while their lawsuit over the project is resolved.
AP Photo/Susan Walsh
More than an easement: A scholar of Native American law lays out the legal arguments in the Dakota Access Pipeline and why they matter to all of us.
Brexit means replacing a court of law with a chit chat?
The British government is actually suggesting quite a radical change as part of leaving the EU, but it doesn't want to make it too easy to understand.
Gina Miller, whose challenge against the government has gone to the Supreme Court.
Victoria Jones/ PA Wire
Great expectations or much ado about nothing?
Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi has agreed a truce with opposition Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama.
The main sticking point in the failed efforts at peace is the demand by Renamo that it be allowed to appoint provincial governors in the provinces where it claims to have won an electoral majority.
The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei via Wikimedia Commons
Under the Tudors, parliamentary sovereignty became paramount.
Britain has a number of bilateral treaties with Eastern European countries that will remain after Brexit.
The South African economy just narrowly escaped a credit rating downgrade but it is not in the clear yet.
South Africa is breathing a sigh of relief after escaping a credit rating downgrade. But there are still serious concerns around structure of the country's economy and finances.
Ethiopian migrants, all members of the Oromo community living in Malta, protest against the Tigray-minority government.
For the first time, all Oromo branches have come together to fight for their national self-determination and democracy
Nauru’s parliament would have been rebuilt in Queensland, but with less power.
In the 1960s, with the phosphate boom over and Nauru's economy in ruins, Australia offered to move the entire nation to Queensland's Curtis Island. But with no sovereignty on offer, the deal collapsed.
European laws are often actually written in pen.
The best option for future relations seems to be EEA membership, but that puts paid to the ideal of 'taking back control'.
Or should we?
Yes, the way the EU makes its laws is complex, but it is done democratically.