Jack Balkin's Constitutionalism and the Expert Panel on Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australians

In January 2012, the Expert Panel on Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australians ('Expert Panel') delivered its report to the then Prime Minister making a number of recommendations to amend the Australian Constitution to 'recognise' Indigenous Australians.1 Rather than engage in a legal critique of the substance of the Expert Panel's various proposals, this article approaches the Expert Panel's Report and proposals as a whole from the perspective of constitutional theory. It argues that the Expert Panel's Report and proposals strongly reflect the constitutional theory of the American constitutional theorist Jack Balkin.