Indigenous Peoples and the Law: Comparative and Critical Perspectives

Indigenous Peoples and the Law provides an historical, comparative, and contextual analysis of various legal and policy issues affecting Indigenous peoples. It focuses on the common law jurisdictions of the US, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, as well as relevant international law developments. This collection of essays features 13 contributors, including many Indigenous scholars, drawn from around the world. The book enables readers to appreciate the seminal issues, precedents, and international legal trends of most concern to Indigenous peoples. The first half of Indigenous Peoples and the Law takes an historical perspective of the principal jurisdictions, canvassing, in particular, themes of Indigenous sovereignty, status, and identity, and the movement for Indigenous self-determination. It also examines these issues in an international context, including the Inter-American human rights regime and the 2007 UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The second part of the book covers contemporary issues and claims of Indigenous peoples, including land rights, mobility rights, community self-governance, environmental governance, alternative dispute resolution processes, the legal status of Aboriginal women, and the place of Indigenous legal traditions and legal theory.