Indigenous Rights

Throughout the world, indigenous rights have become increasingly prominent and controversial. The recent adoption by the United Nations General Assembly of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is the latest in a series of significant developments in the recognition of such rights across a range of jurisdictions. The papers in this collection address the most important philosophical and practical issues informing the discussion of indigenous rights over the past decade or so, at both the international and national levels. Its contributing authors comprise some of the most interesting and influential indigenous and non-indigenous thinkers presently writing on the topic.

Contents: Introduction; Part I Conceptual, Historical and International Context: 'Indigenous peoples' in international law: a constructivist approach to the Asian controversy, Benedict Kingsbury; 'Just backward children': international law and the conquest of non-European peoples, Paul Keal; Indigenous peoples, international institutions, and the international legal literature from 1945-1993, Chris Tennant. Part II Indigenous Rights, Liberalism and Historical Injustice: Kymlicka, liberalism and respect for cultural minorities, John Tomasi; Land, culture and justice: a framework for group rights and recognition, Jeff Spinner-Halev; Historical obligations, Janna Thompson. Part III Kinds of Indigenous Rights: Reconciling 5 competing conceptual structures of indigenous peoples' claims in international and comparative law, Benedict Kingsbury; Indigenous Political Rights - Self-Determination, Self-Government and Sovereignty: Political autonomy and integration of authority: the understanding of Saami self-determination, Else Grete Broderstad; Aboriginal self-government and the construction of Canadian constitutional identity, Michael Asch; Distributing sovereignty: Indian nations and equality of peoples, Patrick Macklem; Indigenous Treaty Rights: Sacred obligations: intercultural justice and the discourse of treaty rights, Rebecca Tsosie; Waitangi tales, Robert E. Goodwin; Indigenous Land and Natural Resources Rights: The sui generis nature of aboriginal rights: does it make a difference?, John Borrows and Leonard I. Rotman; Indigenous rights and environmental justice, Roy W. Perrett; Indigenous Cultural Property Rights: Looking beyond intellectual property in resolving protection of the intangible cultural heritage of indigenous peoples, Robert K. Paterson and Dennis S. Karjala; Culture, autonomy and Djulibinyamurr: individual and community in the construction of rights to traditional designs, Kimberlee Weatherall. Part IV Beyond Indigenous Rights?: Aboriginal peoples