Do communitarian values justify Papua New Guinean and/or Fijian systems of land tenure?
Communitarians have alleged a connection between according specialrights to community groupings and preserving the indigenous cultureand the social cohesion of the original community. This paperconcentrates upon special group rights associated with land tenurenow maintained by Fijian Mataqali and traditional land owninggroups in Papua New Guinea. The first section of the paper assessesand compares the social consequences of each of these systems withspecial attention to the preservation of traditional culture.However, in the case of Fiji, it is undeniable that the mataqaliland tenure system has given indigenous Fijians politicaladvantages over non-indigenous Fijians, most specifically theFijian Indians. Though special land rights can possibly bejustified on the grounds of cultural preservation, their existencedoes raise this further issue of fairness. Moral considerations basedupon the territorial sovereignty of indigenous nations, rather thancommunitarian arguments, may offer a more convincing justificationof the advantages of indigenous Fijians.
An Approach to Political Philosophy: Rediscovering America: the Two treatises and aboriginal rights
INTRODUCTION Three hundred years after its publication the Two treatises continues to present one of the major political philosophies of the modern world. By this I mean it provides a set of concepts we standardly use to represent and reflect on contemporary politics. This arrangement of concepts is not the only form of reflection on modern politics, not our ‘horizon’ so to speak, but it is a familiar and customary one. At the centre of Locke's political philosophy is a theory that accounts for much of its appeal. This is a delegation theory of popular sovereignty built out of two concepts: political society and property. First, political societies are said to be derived from the delegated political powers of the individual members. The members always retain the right to regain these powers when their governors act contrary to their trust, overthrow them by means of revolution, and set up new governors as they think good. Second, the productive powers of any political society are said to be derived from the labour power, the property, of the individual members. These powers also are, as Locke puts it, ‘given up’ in establishing political societies so they may be ‘regulated’ by government for the public good. Again, if labour power is regulated contrary to the trust the members have the right to overthrow their governors and set up new ones.
The law of nations, or, The principles of natural law : applied to the conduct and to the affairs of nations and of sovereigns
* Chap. 1: Of Nations or Sovereign States .................................................................... p. 1 * Chap. 2: General Principles of the Duties of a Nation Towards Herself ................. p. 6 * Chap. 3: Of the Constitution of a State, and its Duties and Rights ............................ p. 10 * Chap. 4: Of the Sovereign, His Obligations, and His Rights ................................... p. 15 * Chap. 5: Of States, Elective, Successive, Hereditary and Patrimonial ...................... p. 26 * Chap. 6: Principal Objects of a Good Government; First, to Provide for Necessities p. 35 * Chap. 7: Of the Cultivation of the Soil .................................................................... p. 38 * Chap. 8: Of Commerce .............................................................................................. p. 41 * Chap. 9: Of the Care of the Public Ways; and of Tolls ............................................. p. 47 * Chap. 10: Of Money and Exchange ............................................................................. p. 48 * Chap. 11: Second Object of a Good Government, to Procure True Happiness ........... p. 51 * Chap. 12: Of Piety and Religion .................................................................................. p. 59 * Chap. 13: Of Justice and Polity .................................................................................. p. 79 * Chap. 14: Third Object of a Good Government, to Fortify Itself Against Attacks ..... p. 88 * Chap. 15: Of the Glory of a Nation ............................................................................. p. 92 * Chap. 16: Protection Sought by a Nation, and Submission to a Foreign Power ......... p. 95 * Chap. 17: How a Nation May Renounce Her Allegiance to Her Sovereign ................ p. 97 * Chap. 18: Establishment of a Nation in a Country ...................................................... p. 99 * Chap. 19: Of Our Native Country, and Several Things That Relate to It .................... p. 102 * Chap. 20: Public, Common, and Private Property ....................................................... p. 111 * Chap. 21: Of the Alienation of the Public Property, or the Domain ........................... p. 118 * Chap. 22: Of Rivers, Streams, and Lakes .................................................................... p. 121 * Chap. 23: Of the Sea .................................................................................................... p. 127