  We consider a relativistic brane propagating in Minkowski spacetime described
by any action which is local in its worldvolume geometry. We examine the
conservation laws associated with the Poincar\'e symmetry of the background
from a worldvolume geometrical point of the view. These laws are exploited to
explore the structure of the equations of motion. General expressions are
provided for both the linear and angular momentum for any action depending on
the worldvolume extrinsic curvature. The conservation laws are examined in
perturbation theory. It is shown how non-trivial solutions with vanishing
energy-momentum can be constructed in higher order theories. Finally,
subtleties associated with boundary terms are examined in the context of the
brane Einstein-Hilbert action.
