Canada has signed more than 70 treaties with its Indigenous peoples. The United States has more than 300 treaties. Our neighbour, New Zealand, has the Treaty of Waitangi. Countries such as Ecuador, Norway and Finland recognise Indigenous sovereignty through other devices, such as constitutional recognition and a Sámi Parliament.

In fact, Australia is the only major Commonwealth country not to have formally recognised that its Indigenous people have an inherent right to sovereignty: that is, the power to govern aspects of their own affairs. The Mabo decision dealt with Aboriginal land rights, but the question of Aboriginal sovereignty was left to languish.

That might now be open to change. My new research just published in the University of New South Wales Law Journal has found a long-forgotten legal rule that can clear the way for the High Court to hear cases about First Nations sovereignty.

This could result in cases as significant as Mabo, potentially transforming Indigenous rights in Australia.

For around 50 years, the High Court has consistently said all questions about First Nations sovereignty fall outside its jurisdiction – that the court does not have the power to hear such........

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