On behalf of the GWSB DEI Council, on October 25 in Duques 251 at 2:30 pm,, Professor Robert Miller of Arizona State University Law School will give a talk on the Doctrine of Discovery. He has provided the following abstract.

Abstract
The majority of the non-European world was colonized under an international law that is known today as the Doctrine of Discovery. Under this legal principle, European countries claimed superior rights over Indigenous nations and peoples. When European explorers planted flags and crosses in the lands of native peoples, they were making legal claims of ownership and domination over the lands, assets, and peoples they had "discovered." These claims were justified by racial, ethnocentric, and religious ideas of the alleged superiority of European Christians.

This talk examines the application of Discovery by Spain, Portugal, Germany, and England in the settler societies of Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, New Zealand, East Africa, and the United States. The comparative law analysis used demonstrates that these colonizing countries applied the elements of the Doctrine, as defined by Professor Miller, in nearly identical ways against Indigenous peoples and nations. Furthermore, these settler societies continue to apply this international law today to restrict the human, property, and sovereign rights of Indigenous nations and peoples. The speaker concludes that basic fairness and a restoration of the self-determination rights of Indigenous peoples mandates that these countries work to remove the vestiges of the Doctrine of Discovery from their modern day laws and policies.