Free, prior and informed consent and native title

This paper seeks to address the question: ‘What is the relevance of international law regarding free, prior and informed consent to the recognition and exercise of native title rights and interests in Australia?’  It does so by examining:

the sources, scope and content at international law of the requirement to accord free, prior and informed consent in respect of decisions affecting the lands and rights of indigenous peoples;
the status and operation of the principle of free, prior and informed consent in Australia, focusing on processes of decision-making by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples about their lands and rights in Australia;
situations in which a requirement to accord free, prior and informed consent in respect of decision-making by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples might arise in, and be constrained by, the Australian native title system; and
what a requirement to accord free, prior and informed consent in decision-making might mean practically in the native title context.