Historical Experts and Indigenous Litigants: The Role of Historical Expert Evidence in Federal Court Cases

Since Mabo, historians are increasingly being called as expert witnesses in cases involving indigenous litigants. Historians perceive serious difficulties in the Court's treatment of qualitative, historical material, resulting in a possible denial of access to justice. The project investigates this treatment, pursuing issues such as expert evidence generally, the specific relationship between Law and History, and the particularity of cases involving indigenous claims. The investigation asks whether historians as expert witnesses can retain both their historical professionalism and adapt to the requirements of the courts, or whether the courts rules of evidence themselves require adaptation.