ABSTRACT
Australian law, that is, settler-colonial law, is violent. But this is invisible and unpalpable to those who are not its direct targets. Law’s violence could be examined as a purely philosophical question. As force is enclosed within enforceability, and law is law because of its enforceability, law comes with internalised and inherent violence. But in settler-colonial contexts where structures of law provide unlawful and non-consensual foundations for the maintenance of colonial power, it is necessary to explore the question of law’s violence with attention to the colonial infrastructure it provides. By positioning the police killing of Kumanjayi Walker and the subsequent acquittal of the police officer who killed him in relation to the Nulyarimma case, the killing function or nomocidal character of Australian law is laid bare.
