The International Law of Colonialism:\nJohnson v. M’Intosh and the Doctrine of Discovery Applied Worldwide

The United States Supreme Court’s first Indian law case, Johnson v. M’Intosh, was decided in 1823. In that case, the Court summarized and then applied four hundred years of international law and colonization to the Indigenous nations and peoples within the United States. Johnson is still the law in the United States today and has also influenced the jurisprudence and histories of other settler colonial countries around the world. Johnson has been cited scores of times by courts in New Zealand, Australia, and Canada, as well as by the British Privy Council. The elements or factors that make up this international law have been used by European colonizer countries since the early 1400s to establish empires around the world. These elements are plainly visible in the histories and policies of both former colonizer and formally colonized countries, as well as in these countries’ contemporary laws. For example, the elements are still present in the laws and policies of the United States, Chile, and Brazil.