Editing Native title in Australia (section)

====1979 – ''Coe v Commonwealth''====
In 1979, [[Paul Coe]], a [[Wiradjuri]] man from [[Cowra, New South Wales]], commenced an action in the [[High Court of Australia]] arguing that Aboriginal people retained rights to land as an Aboriginal nation or nations existed pre-settlement and continues to exist, and that their land had been taken by conquest rather than by settlement.<ref name="Coe v Cth">{{cite AustLII|HCA|68|1979|litigants=[[Coe v Commonwealth]] |parallelcite=(1979) 24 [[Australian Law Reports|ALR]] 118; (1979) 53 [[Australian Law Journal Reports|ALJR]] 403 |courtname=auto |date=5 April 1979}}.</ref> The court held in ''Coe v Commonwealth'' (1979) that no [[Australian Indigenous sovereignty|Aboriginal nation holds any kind of sovereignty]], distinguishing the US case of [[Cherokee Nation v. Georgia|Cherokee Nation v Georgia (1831)]].<ref>{{cite AustLII|litigants=Coe v Commonwealth|court=HCA|num=68|year=1979|pinpoint=[12]|parallelcite=(1979) 53 ALJR 403|courtname=auto}}</ref> However, the substantive issue of continuing land rights was not heard due to the lack of precision, vagueness and other serious deficiencies with the statement of claim presented to the court.<ref>{{citation |last=Kelly |first=G M |title=Constitutional Confusion in the Cocos Islands: The Strange Deliverance of Lim Keng}} [https://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/FedLawRw/1983/2.html (1982-1983) 13(3) Federal Law Review 229].</ref> [[Harry Gibbs|Justice Gibbs]] said, at paragraph 21, 'The question what rights the aboriginal people of this country have, or ought to have, in the lands of Australia is one which has become a matter of heated controversy. If there are serious legal questions to be decided as to the existence or nature of such rights, no doubt the sooner they are decided the better, but the resolution of such questions by the courts will not be assisted by imprecise, emotional or intemperate claims. In this, as in any other litigation, the claimants will be best served if their claims are put before the court dispassionately, lucidly and in proper form'.<ref name="Coe v Cth"/>