C. Scott Lopez

C. Scott Lopez

Fulbright Postgraduate Scholar U.S. Alumni Award

Media Profile

“Both groups [Native Americans and Australian Aboriginals] of Native Peoples embrace concepts of land ownership which differ markedly from the concepts of property rights held by the largely European descendants who displaced them, and both groups have traditional dispute resolution techniques which differ markedly from European common law traditions.”

Scott Lopez is a Doctor of Law graduate of Yale University Law School specialising in Property and Native Title Law, along with Immigration and Asylum Law. Originally a graduate from Harvard University, Scott also has a Masters in Education and MBA from Stanford University.

Scott has won the inaugural Fulbright U.S. Alumni Postgraduate Award to Australia. The award was launched in 2004 by Ambassador Thomas Pickering, Senior Vice President International Relations, Boeing and Fulbright Alumnus to Australia, and is supported through the generous donations of U.S. Fulbright Alumnus. The award is granted to the highest ranked U.S. Postgraduate applicant.  

Through his award Scott will undertake a Master of Laws (LLM) at the University of Sydney where he will research alternative dispute resolution techniques for resolving Australian Aboriginal Native Title claims. Despite the Australian High Court’s recognition of Aborigines’ right to Native Title over a decade ago, there has been little discourse addressing the means of validating Native Title claims. The Australian High Court has not offered any specific tests for defining Native Title – a concept Aborigines rightfully feel cannot be understood by non-Aborigines.

Through his research into Australia’s Native Title, Scott aims to apply his methods and results beyond Australia to assist the claims of native peoples elsewhere, such as Native Americans and their rights over Reservation land in the United States.

“Only by isolating criteria for identifying culturally sensitive and locally defined approaches, will Australian Aborigines, Sioux, Navaho and so forth have their Native Title claims addressed and resolved fairly and completely,” states Scott.

Of Puerto Rican heritage, Scott spent his younger years in downtown Los Angeles, a background that guided him to be an educator and make a difference. During his studies and career he has worked as a volunteer with youth and refugee groups, including a period with the United Nations in Cambodia and as a Law Clerk with the U.N. Rwandan Criminal Genocide Tribunal in Tanzania.