InBrief

Members who have a professional or general interest in the political and legal history of Australia's external territories should be aware of an important resource published by the Commonwealth Attorney-General's Department on its web site (in three parts). _A Federation in These Seas: An Account of the Acquisition by Australia of its External Territorie_s was written by Alan Kerr and published in June 2009. In the foreword to the book, the then minister for home affairs, the Hon Bob Debus, said:

A Federation in These Seas is a significant work which outlines for the first time in detail, the history of the Commonwealth’s acquisition of its external territories over more than the last century. It sets out the reasons why control over each of them was sought against the background of Australia’s growing international status. It draws on contemporary political and official material and reproduces copies of the British and Australian legal instruments involved, never before published in one work.�

22 September 2009