Law as Politics: Chinese Litigants in Australian Colonial Courts
Author(s)
Finnane, Mark
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2015
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The recent historiography of the Chinese in Australia has emphasised their vigorous formation of a local identity and community even in the face of recurrent and expand-ing threats of exclusion from colonial life. In their ready embrace of legal remedies to redress what they saw as discrimination or other harms, the Chinese were exemplar colonial settlers who looked to the law to protect them. In colonial appeal courts Chinese litigants challenged migration controls, contested convictions under opium restriction and gambling laws, sought equitable outcomes in property inheritance ...
View more >The recent historiography of the Chinese in Australia has emphasised their vigorous formation of a local identity and community even in the face of recurrent and expand-ing threats of exclusion from colonial life. In their ready embrace of legal remedies to redress what they saw as discrimination or other harms, the Chinese were exemplar colonial settlers who looked to the law to protect them. In colonial appeal courts Chinese litigants challenged migration controls, contested convictions under opium restriction and gambling laws, sought equitable outcomes in property inheritance and challenged exclusionary regulation under the Factory Acts. In contrast to another kind of history of the Chinese in Australian law, as defendants in criminal prosecution, this chapter draws attention to the Chinese engagement in legal remedies as an assertion of their entitlement to recognition and fair play.
View less >
View more >The recent historiography of the Chinese in Australia has emphasised their vigorous formation of a local identity and community even in the face of recurrent and expand-ing threats of exclusion from colonial life. In their ready embrace of legal remedies to redress what they saw as discrimination or other harms, the Chinese were exemplar colonial settlers who looked to the law to protect them. In colonial appeal courts Chinese litigants challenged migration controls, contested convictions under opium restriction and gambling laws, sought equitable outcomes in property inheritance and challenged exclusionary regulation under the Factory Acts. In contrast to another kind of history of the Chinese in Australian law, as defendants in criminal prosecution, this chapter draws attention to the Chinese engagement in legal remedies as an assertion of their entitlement to recognition and fair play.
View less >
Book Title
Chinese Australians: Politics, Engagement and Resistance
Subject
Law
Social Sciences
Demography
Ethnic Studies
Chinese immigrants
Australia