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The discovery doctrine, or doctrine of discovery, is a disputed interpretation of international law during the Age of Discovery, introduced into United States municipal law by the US Supreme Court Justice John Marshall in Johnson v. McIntosh (1823). In Marshall's formulation of the doctrine, discovery of territory previously unknown to Europeans gave the discovering nation title to that territory against all other European nations, and this title could be perfected by possession. A number of legal scholars have criticized Marshall's interpretation of the relevant international law. In recent decades, advocates for Indigenous rights have campaigned against the doctrine. In 2023, the Roman Curia of the Vatican formally repudiated the doctrine. [1] [2]
The means by which a state can acquire territory in international law are conquest, cession by agreement, occupation of land which belongs to no state ( terra nullius ), and prescription through the continuous exercise of sovereignty. [3] [4] Discovery of a territory creates a mere inchoate title which must be completed within a reasonable period by effective occupation of that territory. [4]
Law professor Robert J. Miller [5] states that by 1493, "The idea that the Doctrine [of discovery] granted European monarchs ownership rights in newly discovered lands and sovereign and commercial rights over Indigenous peoples due to first discovery by European Christians was now established international law, at least to Europeans." [6] Law professor Kent McNeil, [7] however, states, "it is not apparent that such a rule was ever part of the European law of nations." [8]
Miller and others trace the doctrine of discovery back to papal bulls which authorized various European powers to conquer the lands of non-Christians. [9] [10] In 1452, Pope Nicholas V issued the bull Dum Diversas , which authorized King Afonso V of Portugal to "subjugate the Saracens and pagans and any other unbelievers and enemies of Christ", and "reduce their persons to perpetual servitude", to take their belongings, including land, "to convert them to you, and your use, and your successors the Kings of Portugal." [11] In 1455, Pope Nicholas V issued Romanus Pontifex , which extended Portugal's authority to conquer the lands of infidels and pagans for "the salvation of all" in order to "pardon ... their souls". The document also granted Portugal a specific right to conquest in West Africa and to trade with Saracens and infidels in designated areas. [11] [12] Charles and Rah argue that these bulls were used to justify the Atlantic slave trade. [10]
In 1493, following a dispute between Portugal and Spain over the discovery of non-Christian lands in the Americas, Pope Alexander VI issued the Bulls of Donation. The first of these, Inter caetera , drew a north-south line 100 leagues West of the Cape Verde Islands. It gave the Catholic Monarchs of Spain exclusive rights to travel and trade west of that line, and to "bring under your sway the said mainland and islands with their residents and inhabitants and to bring them to the Catholic faith." A second on the same day, Eximiae devotionis , referred to the rights of the sovereigns of Castile and León. These were extended later in the year by a third bull, Dudum siquidem . In 1494, Portugal and Spain signed the Treaty of Tordesillas, which moved the line separating their spheres of influence to 300 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands. [11] The treaty was eventually endorsed by Pope Julius II in the 1506 bull Ea quae pro bono pacis . [13]
Throughout the sixteenth century, Spain and Portugal claimed that papal authority had given them exclusive rights of discovery, trade and conquest of non-Christian lands in their respective spheres of influence. These claims were challenged by theorists of natural law such as the Spanish theologians Domingo de Soto and Francisco di Vitoria. In 1539 Vitoria wrote that the Spanish discovery of the Americas provides "no support for possession of these lands, any more than it would if they had discovered us." [14]
France and England also made claims to territories inhabited by non-Christians based on first discovery, but disputed the notion that papal bulls, or discovery by itself, could provide title over lands. In 1541, French plans to establish colonies in Canada drew protests from Spain. In response, France effectively repudiated the papal bulls and claims based on discovery without possession, the French king stating that "Popes hold spiritual jurisdiction, and it does not lie with them to distribute land amongst kings" and that "passing by and discovering with the eye was not taking possession." [15]
Similarly, when in 1580 Spain protested to Elizabeth I about Francis Drake's violation of the Spanish sphere, the English queen replied that popes had no right to grant the world to princes, that she owed no allegiance to the Pope, and that mere symbolic gestures (such as erecting monuments or naming rivers) did not give property rights. [16]
From the sixteenth century, France and England asserted a right to explore and colonize any non-Christian territory not under the actual possession of a Christian sovereign. [17] The stated justifications for this included the spread of Christianity, the duty to bring civilization to barbarian peoples, the natural right to explore and trade freely with other peoples, and the right to settle and cultivate uninhabited or uncultivated land. [18]
Hugo Grotius, writing in 1625, stated that discovery does not give a right to sovereignty over inhabited land, "For discovery applies to those things which belong to no one." Dutch policy was to acquire land in North America by purchase from indigenous peoples. [19]
By the eighteenth century, some leading theorists of international law argued that territorial rights over land could stem from the settlement and cultivation of that land. William Blackstone, in 1756, wrote, "Plantations or colonies, in distant countries, are either such where the lands are claimed by right of occupancy only, by finding them desert and uncultivated, and peopling them from the mother-country; or where, when already cultivated, they have been either gained by conquest, or ceded to us by treaties. And both these rights are founded upon the law of nature, or at least upon that of nations." [20] Two years after Blackstone, Emer de Vattel, in his Le droit des gents (1758), drew a distinction between land that was effectively occupied and cultivated, and the unsettled and uncultivated land of nomads which was open to colonization. [21]
All imperial European states enacted symbolic rituals to give notice of discovery and possession of lands to other states. These rituals included burying plates, raising flags, erecting signs, and naming territories, rivers or other features. More concrete claims of possession ranged from building forts to establishing settlements. Rituals of a transfer of sovereignty often involved trials, executions and other acts to symbolize that the laws of the colonizing power were in force. [22] [23]
European monarchs often asserted sovereignty over large areas of non-Christian territory based on purported discoveries and symbolic acts of possession. They frequently issued charters and commissions giving the grantees the power to represent the Crown and acquire property. While European states often acknowledged that indigenous peoples inhabiting these lands had property rights which had to be acquired through conquest, treaty or purchase, they sometimes acted as if territories were uninhabited and sovereignty and property rights could be acquired through occupation. [24] [25]
Summarizing the practices European states used to justify their acquisition of territory inhabited by indigenous peoples, McNeil states, "While Spain and Portugal favoured discovery and papal grants because it was generally in their interests to do so, France and Britain relied more on symbolic acts, colonial charters, and occupation." [24] Benton and Strauman argue that European powers often adopted multiple, sometimes contradictory, legal rationales for their acquisition of territory as a deliberate strategy in defending their claims against European rivals. [26]
In 1792, U.S. Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson claimed that the doctrine of discovery was international law which was applicable to the new United States government as well. [27]
The discovery doctrine was expounded by the United States Supreme Court in a series of decisions, most notably Johnson v. McIntosh in 1823. In that case, Chief Justice John Marshall held that under generally accepted principles of international law:
Dunbar-Oritz states that the doctrine outlined in this case continues to influence American imperialism and treatment of indigenous peoples. [27]
Banner and Kades argue that the 1823 case was the result of collusive lawsuits where land speculators worked together to make claims to achieve a desired result. [29] [30] The plaintiff, Johnson, had inherited land originally purchased from the Piankeshaw tribes. Defendant McIntosh claimed the same land, having purchased it under a grant from the United States. In 1775, members of the Piankeshaw tribe sold certain land in the Indiana Territory to Lord Dunmore, Royal Governor of Virginia, and others. In 1805, the Piankeshaw conveyed much of the same land to William Henry Harrison, governor of the Indiana Territory, thus giving rise to conflicting claims of title. [31] The court found, on three grounds, that it should not recognize the land titles obtained from Native Americans prior to American independence. A number of academics and Indigenous rights activists have argued that Chief Justice John Marshall had large real estate holdings that would have been affected if the case were decided in favor of Johnson. [32]
Marshall found that ultimate title to land comes into existence by virtue of discovery and possession of that land, a rule that had been observed by all European countries with settlements in the New World. The United States had ultimate title of the land, as against other European nations, because it inherited that title from the original discoverers Britain and France, as part of the sovereign rights the U.S. had won from the British crown through war.
Marshall noted:
On the discovery of this immense continent, the great nations of Europe ... as they were all in pursuit of nearly the same object, it was necessary, in order to avoid conflicting settlements, and consequent war with each other, to establish a principle which all should acknowledge as the law by which the right of acquisition, which they all asserted, should be regulated as between themselves. This principle was that discovery gave title to the government by whose subjects, or by whose authority, it was made, against all other European governments, which title might be consummated by possession. ... The history of America, from its discovery to the present day, proves, we think, the universal recognition of these principles. [33]
Marshall noted the 1455 papal bull Romanus Pontifex approved Portugal's claims to lands discovered along the coast of West Africa, and the 1493 Inter caetera had ratified Spain's right to conquer newly found lands. Marshall stated, however, "Spain did not rest her title solely on the grant of the Pope. Her discussions respecting boundary, with France, with Great Britain, and with the United States, all show that she placed it on the rights given by discovery. Portugal sustained her claim to the Brazils by the same title." [33] Marshall pointed to the exploration charters given to the explorer John Cabot as proof that other nations had accepted the doctrine. [34]
Allison Dussias states that the Piankeshaw were not party to the litigation and therefore, "no Indian voices were heard in a case which had, and continues to have, profound effects on Indian property rights." [35]
McNeil states that the authority for the doctrine of discovery, as formulated by Marshall, was "flimsy". Furthermore, Indigenous nations in North America were factually independent and sovereign prior to the arrival of Europeans and therefore the European powers should not have been able to acquire territorial sovereignty by discovery and settlement, but only by conquest or cession. [36]
Pagden states that Marshall did not sufficiently consider Francisco de Vitoria's critique of the claim that discovery gave a right to possession of inhabited lands. [37] Vitoria, however, stated that the Spanish could claim possession of the Americas by conquest if indigenous populations violated principles of natural law. [38]
Blake Watson states that Marshall overlooked evidence showing that the Dutch and some English settlers acknowledged the right of Indians to their land and favored purchase as a means of acquiring title. Watson and others, such as Robert A. Williams Jr., state that Marshall misinterpreted the "discovery doctrine" as giving exclusive right to lands discovered, rather than the exclusive right to treaty with the inhabitants who owned that land. [39]
In Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831), the US Supreme Court found that the Cherokee Nation was a "domestic dependent nation" with no standing to take action against the state of Georgia. [40]
In Worcester v Georgia (1832), Marshall re-interpreted the doctrine of discovery. He stated that discovery did not give the discovering nation title to land, but only "the sole right of acquiring the soil and making settlements on it." This was a right of preemption which only applied between the colonizing powers and did not diminish the sovereignty of the indigenous inhabitants. "It regulated the right given by discovery among the European discoverers, but could not affect the rights of those already in possession, either as aboriginal occupants, or as occupants by virtue of a discovery made before the memory of man." [41]
In five further cases decided between 1836 and 1842, Mitchel I, Fernandez, Clark, Mitchel II, and Martin, the Supreme Court restored the rule in Johnson that discovery gave the discovering nation ultimate title to land, subject to a right of occupancy held by indigenous peoples. [42]
In Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe (1979), the Supreme Court held that discovery deprived tribes of the right to prosecute non-Indians. In Duro v. Reina (1990) the court held that tribes could not prosecute Indians who were not a member of the prosecuting tribe. [43] However in November 1990, the Indian Civil Rights Act was amended by Congress to permit inter-tribal prosecutions. [44] [45]
As of March 2023 [update] , the most recent time the doctrine was cited by the Supreme Court is in the 2005 case City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation of New York , by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the majority decision. [46]
Johnson v M'Intosh was extensively discussed in St Catharines Milling and Lumber Co v R (1888), the first Canadian case on Indigenous land title. The judge in first instance stated that Marshall had "concisely stated the same law of the mother country". On appeal, however, the Privy Council departed from Johnson in finding that native land rights were derived from the Royal Proclamation of 1763. [47]
In 1973, Calder v British Columbia (Attorney General) , the Supreme Court of Canada found that the Indigenous peoples of Canada held an aboriginal title to their land, which was independent of the Royal Proclamation of 1763 and was derived from the fact that, "when the settlers came, the Indians were there, organized in societies and occupying the land as their forefathers had done for centuries". [47]
In Tsilhqot'in Nation v British Columbia (2014), the Supreme Court of Canada confirmed that "the doctrine of terra nullius never applied in Canada". Aboriginal title is a beneficial interest in land, although the Crown retains an underlying title. [48] The court set out a number of conditions which must be met in order for the Crown to extinguish Aboriginal title. [49]
In 2007, the United Nations (UN) adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which acknowledges the "rights of Indigenous peoples to their land". The only nations to vote against the declaration were the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. All four would later reverse their positions. [50]
The discovery doctrine has been condemned as socially unjust, racist, and in violation of basic and fundamental human rights. [51] The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) noted the doctrine of discovery "as the foundation of the violation of their (Indigenous people) human rights". [32] The eleventh session of the UNPFII, held at the UN's New York headquarters from 7–18 May 2012, had the special theme of "The Doctrine of Discovery: its enduring impact on Indigenous peoples and the right to redress for past conquests (articles 28 and 37 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples)". [52] It called for a mechanism to investigate historical land claims, with speakers observing that "The Doctrine of Discovery had been used for centuries to expropriate Indigenous lands and facilitate their transfer to colonizing or dominating nations". [53]
The General Convention of the US Episcopal Church, conducted on 8–17 August 2009, passed a resolution officially repudiating the discovery doctrine. [54]
During the Ninth Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in April 2010, the Holy See addressed the doctrine, saying that it had been abrogated as early as 1494 by subsequent papal bulls, encyclicals, and pronouncements. It said that it considered Inter caetera as "a historic remnant with no juridical, moral or doctrinal value". [55]
At the 2012 Unitarian Universalist Association General Assembly in Phoenix, Arizona, delegates passed a resolution repudiating the doctrine of discovery and calling on Unitarian Universalists to study the doctrine and eliminate its presence from the current-day policies, programs, theologies, and structures of Unitarian Universalism. [56]
In 2013, at its 29th General Synod, the United Church of Christ repudiated the doctrine in a near-unanimous vote. [57]
In 2014, Ruth Hopkins, a tribal attorney and former judge, wrote to Pope Francis asking him to formally revoke the Inter caetera papal bull of 1493. [58]
At the 2016 Synod, 10–17 June in Grand Rapids, Michigan, delegates to the annual general assembly of the Christian Reformed Church rejected the doctrine of discovery as heresy in response to a study report on the topic. [59]
At the 222nd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) (2016), commissioners called on members of the church to repudiate the doctrine of discovery. The commissioners directed that a report be written reviewing the history of the doctrine. That report was approved by the 223rd General Assembly (2018), along with recommendations for a variety of additional actions that could be taken by the church at all levels to acknowledge indigenous peoples and to confront racism against them. [60]
In 2016, the Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) adopted Assembly Action CA16.02.04 titled "Repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery" by a vote of 912–28, describing the doctrine as "an example of the 'improper mixing of the power of the church and the power of the sword'". [61]
On November 3, 2016, a group of 524 clergy publicly burned copies of Inter caetera , [62] as part of the Dakota Access Pipeline protests near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. [63] [64] As part of their demonstration, they invited a number of indigenous elders to authorize the burning. [65]
The General Assembly of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) condemned and repudiated the Doctrine of Discovery in July 2017, noting it "continues to facilitate genocide, oppression, dehumanization, and the removal of Peoples from ancestral lands in the United States, Canada and globally". [66]
The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada have repudiated the doctrine and called on governments to remove it from laws and policies. [67] [68]
During Pope Francis's July 2022 penitential pilgrimage to Canada in light of the abuses of Canadian Indigenous children in residential schools, [69] [70] Canadian bishops requested that the Catholic Church issue a new statement on the doctrine of discovery. [69]
On March 30, 2023, the Vatican's Dicasteries for Culture and Education and for Promoting Integral Human Development jointly repudiated the doctrine of discovery as "not part of the teaching of the Catholic Church". [71] The Vatican's statement pointed to the 1537 papal bull, Sublimis Deus , which affirmed the liberty and property rights of indigenous peoples and prohibited their enslavement. [46]
There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territory, and an experience of subjugation and discrimination under a dominant cultural model.
In property law, title is an intangible construct representing a bundle of rights in (to) a piece of property in which a party may own either a legal interest or equitable interest. The rights in the bundle may be separated and held by different parties. It may also refer to a formal document, such as a deed, that serves as evidence of ownership. Conveyance of the document may be required in order to transfer ownership in the property to another person. Title is distinct from possession, a right that often accompanies ownership but is not necessarily sufficient to prove it. In many cases, possession and title may each be transferred independently of the other. For real property, land registration and recording provide public notice of ownership information.
Terra nullius is a Latin expression meaning "nobody's land". Since the nineteenth century it has occasionally been used in international law as a principle to justify claims that territory may be acquired by a state's occupation of it. There are currently three territories sometimes claimed to be terra nullius: Bir Tawil, four pockets of land near the Danube due to the Croatia–Serbia border dispute, and parts of Antarctica, principally Marie Byrd Land.
The Treaty of Alcáçovas was signed on 4 September 1479 between the Catholic Monarchs of Castile and Aragon on one side and Afonso V and his son, Prince John of Portugal, on the other side. It put an end to the War of the Castilian Succession, which ended with a victory of the Castilians on land and a Portuguese victory on the sea. The four peace treaties signed at Alcáçovas reflected that outcome: Isabella was recognized as Queen of Castile while Portugal reached hegemony in the Atlantic Ocean.
Tribal sovereignty in the United States is the concept of the inherent authority of Indigenous tribes to govern themselves within the borders of the United States.
Inter caetera was a papal bull issued by Pope Alexander VI on the 4 May 1493, which granted to the Catholic Monarchs King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile all lands to the "west and south" of a pole-to-pole line 100 leagues west and south of any of the islands of the Azores or the Cape Verde islands.
Dum Diversas is a papal bull issued on 18 June 1452 by Pope Nicholas V. It authorized King Afonso V of Portugal to fight, subjugate, and conquer “those rising against the Catholic faith and struggling to extinguish Christian Religion”— namely, the "Saracens (Muslims) and pagans" in a militarily disputed African territory. The document consigned warring enemies that lost to "perpetual servitude". This and the subsequent bull, issued by Nicholas in 1455, gave the Portuguese what they saw as moral justification to freely acquire slaves along the African coast by force or trade. The edicts are thus seen as having facilitated the Portuguese slave trade from West Africa and as having legitimized the European colonization of the African continent.
Romanus Pontifex is the title of at least three papal bulls:
Johnson v. McIntosh, 21 U.S. 543 (1823), also written M‘Intosh, is a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that held that private citizens could not purchase lands from Native Americans. As the facts were recited by Chief Justice John Marshall, the successor in interest to a private purchase from the Piankeshaw attempted to maintain an action of ejectment against the holder of a federal land patent.
Indigenous land rights are the rights of Indigenous peoples to land and natural resources therein, either individually or collectively, mostly in colonised countries. Land and resource-related rights are of fundamental importance to Indigenous peoples for a range of reasons, including: the religious significance of the land, self-determination, identity, and economic factors. Land is a major economic asset, and in some Indigenous societies, using natural resources of earth and sea form the basis of their household economy, so the demand for ownership derives from the need to ensure their access to these resources. Land can also be an important instrument of inheritance or a symbol of social status. In many Indigenous societies, such as among the many Aboriginal Australian peoples, the land is an essential part of their spirituality and belief systems.
The Catholic Church during the Age of Discovery inaugurated a major effort to spread Christianity in the New World and to convert the indigenous peoples of the Americas and other indigenous peoples. The evangelical effort was a major part of, and a justification for, the military conquests of European powers such as Portugal, Spain, and France. Christian missions to the indigenous peoples ran hand-in-hand with the colonial efforts of Catholic nations. In the Americas and other colonies in Asia, and Africa, most missions were run by religious orders such as the Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians, and Jesuits. In Mexico, the early systematic evangelization by mendicants came to be known as the "Spiritual Conquest of Mexico".
The first wave of European colonialismuropean colonization of the Americas, though it also included the establishment of European colonies in India and in Maritime Southeast Asia. During this period, European interests in Africa primarily focused on the establishment of trading posts there, particularly for the African slave trade. The wave ended with the British annexation of the Kingdom of Kandy in 1815 and the founding of the colony of Singapore in 1819.
Aboriginal title is a common law doctrine that the land rights of indigenous peoples to customary tenure persist after the assumption of sovereignty to that land by another colonising state. The requirements of proof for the recognition of aboriginal title, the content of aboriginal title, the methods of extinguishing aboriginal title, and the availability of compensation in the case of extinguishment vary significantly by jurisdiction. Nearly all jurisdictions are in agreement that aboriginal title is inalienable, and that it may be held either individually or collectively.
In Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States the term treaty rights specifically refers to rights for indigenous peoples enumerated in treaties with settler societies that arose from European colonization.
City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation of New York, 544 U.S. 197 (2005), was a Supreme Court of the United States case in which the Court held that repurchase of traditional tribal lands 200 years later did not restore tribal sovereignty to that land. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote the majority opinion.
The Marshall Court (1801–1835) issued some of the earliest and most influential opinions by the Supreme Court of the United States on the status of aboriginal title in the United States, several of them written by Chief Justice John Marshall himself. However, without exception, the remarks of the Court on aboriginal title during this period are dicta. Only one indigenous litigant ever appeared before the Marshall Court, and there, Marshall dismissed the case for lack of original jurisdiction.
Fellows v. Blacksmith, 60 U.S. 366 (1857), is a United States Supreme Court decision involving Native American law. John Blacksmith, a Tonawanda Seneca, sued agents of the Ogden Land Company for common law claims of trespass, assault, and battery after he was forcibly evicted from his sawmill by the Company's agents. The Court affirmed a judgement in Blacksmith's favor, notwithstanding the fact that the Seneca had executed an Indian removal treaty and the Company held the exclusive right to purchase to the land by virtue of an interstate compact ratified by Congress.
Ancestral domain or ancestral lands are the lands, territories and resources of indigenous peoples, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region. The term differs from indigenous land rights, Aboriginal title or Native Title by directly indicating relationship to land based on ancestry, while domain indicates relationships beyond material lands and territories, including spiritual and cultural aspects that may not be acknowledged in land titles and legal doctrine about trading ownership.
An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States is a non-fiction book written by the historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and published by Beacon Press. It is the third of a series of six ReVisioning books which reconstruct and reinterpret U.S. history from marginalized peoples' perspectives. On July 23, 2019, the same press published An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States for Young People, an adaptation by Jean Mendoza and Debbie Reese of Dunbar-Ortiz's original volume.
In Canada, aboriginal title is considered a sui generis interest in land. Aboriginal title has been described this way in order to distinguish it from other proprietary interests, but also due to the fact its characteristics cannot be explained by reference either to only the common law rules of real property, or to only the rules of property found in Indigenous legal systems. The Supreme Court of Canada has characterised the idea that aboriginal title is sui generis as the unifying principle underlying the various dimensions of that title. Aboriginal title is properly construed as neither a real right nor a personal right, despite the fact that it appears to share characteristics of both real and personal rights. Aboriginal title refers to the concept of a sui generis right in land that originates from the exclusive occupation and use of a specific territory by an aboriginal group over which the group has a native historic attachment.