Professor Hughes' call follows a controversial decision by the Northern Territory's Chief Justice, Brian Martin, last month to sentence a 55-year-old Aboriginal elder to only four weeks' jail for hitting his 14-year-old "promised wife" with a boomerang and having forced anal sex with her.
The girl's family had promised her to the man under traditional law when she was only four.
Justice Martin said he accepted that the man was not aware that what he did violated NT laws.
