Distancing itself from a violent colonial past, Australia has—over the last several decades—moved towards a national identity of liberal multiculturalism. Nevertheless, an inquiry into the current state of affairs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait People—the original inhabitants and custodians of what is now known as Australia—exposes the deceptive underbelly of Australia’s so-called multiculturalism. Through various federal,state, and territorial laws, as well as legal structures, I argue that the Australian legal system—and Australia as a whole—continues to exist and function as a colonial entity. As such, the only viable pathway for Australia to truly undergo a process of decolonization is through a massive overhaul of its legal system, in which Aboriginal and Torres Strait People are granted the right to freely and autonomously practice their customary laws, in which they are paid reparations for the historical and modern violence inflicted upon them by colonial forces, and in which they are granted unconditional ownership of their indigenous lands.

Ruling in favor of the respondent in the case of Sharp v. Murphy (2020), the Supreme Court was lauded for what many described as a bold recognition of Native American sovereignty. In the case of respondent Patrick Dwayne Murphy, a Muscogee Nation member who murdered another Muscogee Nation member on reservation territory and was subsequently sentenced to death by Oklahoma State courts, the Supreme Court ruled that state courts did not have the jurisdiction to prosecute crimes committed by Native Americans, on Native American reservation land. Rather, in cases of murder (in addition to other "major crimes"), the Supreme Court ruled that federal courts would hold sole jurisdiction. In so doing, it is clear that tribal courts are not granted any kind of judicial sovereignty. On the contrary, this decision functioned to further cement the primacy of US courts over Native American courts, thus perpetuating the delegitimization of Native American judicial systems.