Yanner v Eaton [1999] HCA 53<\/strong><\/p>\nAUSTRALIAN LAW \u2013 SUBJECT-MATTER OF PROPERTY \u2013 WHAT IS A PROPERTY RIGHT<\/p>\n
Facts<\/h3>\n
The appellant was an indigenous hunter who killed two animals in a creek for his own consumption. He was later charged with taking \u2018fauna\u2019 from the area without a license, contrary to statute. This statute made all \u2018fauna\u2019 \u2018property\u2019 of the Crown. Unlike the previous statute, there was no exception for native hunting rights.<\/p>\n
Issues<\/h3>\n
The issue in this case was the meaning of \u2018property\u2019 under the statute. What the statute meant by \u2018property\u2019 was determinative of whether the appellant\u2019s native hunting rights had been extinguished by the statute.<\/p>\n
Decision \/ Outcome<\/h3>\n
The High Court held in favour of the appellant.<\/strong><\/p>\nThe court explained that the term \u2018property\u2019 does not necessarily mean full, beneficial or legal ownership. Rather, property is a \u2018legal relationship\u2019 with an objectwhich grants a person a right to exercise power over the object in some respect. As such, property is a variable concept which can have different degrees of intensity.<\/p>\n
In the present case, it could not be concluded that the statute granted full beneficial ownership or a possessory right over fauna to the Crown when it referred to \u2018property\u2019: this would lead to absurd results in the case of migratory birds, for example. Rather, as the purpose of the statute was to create a paid licensing system, the reference to property was merely \u2018a fiction expressive in legal shorthand of the importance to its people that a State have power to preserve and regulate the exploitation of an important resource<\/em>\u2019 ([28]). The reference to property in the statute was a mere licensing right.<\/p>\nSuperior legislation provided that licensing rights and requirements do not apply to native title rights, and so the natives\u2019 right to hunt had not been extinguished.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The appellant was an indigenous hunter who killed two animals in a creek for his own consumption. He was later charged with taking \u2018fauna\u2019 from the area without a license, contrary to statute.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[90],"class_list":["post-5070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cases","tag-au-law"],"yoast_head":"\n
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