ID120 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Romanus Pontifex, Dum Diversas, Terra Nullius
Document Summary
There are many doctrines that displaced the rights of indigenous people but the doctrine of discovery is one they are still holding on to. The formal giving up of rights property or territory. This is what canada thinks happen, but indigenous people did not see it that way. Living in someone else"s territory for an extended period of time, and you exercise peaceful and unchallenged sovereignty over that territory. Whoever wins a war gets to claim sovereignty over the territory of the conquered. Indigenous peoples were never conquered, there was never a war (canada alone) If you find land and its not occupied you can claim it. There was no empty land to apply this to. Based on papal bulls dum diversas (1452), romanus pontifex (1455) When eurpopean nations discovered non-european lands, they gained special rights over that land, such as sovereignty and title, regardless of what other people live on that land.
