This course provides an introduction to Indigenous Law and to Canadian laws relating to Indigenous Peoples. It covers legacy topics, including: Indigenous laws and Indigenous legal sources, authorities, methods, and theories with examples drawn from specific Indigenous legal orders, as well colonial policies of dispossession and assimilation, in particular the residential school system, that suppressed Indigenous languages, identities, and systems of law and governance. It covers reconciliation topics, including: the constitutional protection of Aboriginal and Treaty rights by section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982, including Aboriginal title; the `honour of the Crown' and the duty to consult and accommodate; historic and modern treaties and land-claim settlement agreements; the revitalization of Indigenous laws and Indigenous self-determination; and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Examples will be drawn from particular areas of law (e.g., child and family services, criminal law, environmental and natural resource law), and the course will encourage the development of cross-cultural competencies, deeper understandings of racism, and inter-cultural skills.
This course provides an introduction to Indigenous Law and to Canadian laws relating to Indigenous Peoples. It covers legacy topics, including: Indigenous laws and Indigenous legal sources, authorities, methods, and theories with examples drawn from specific Indigenous legal orders, as well colonial policies of dispossession and assimilation, in particular the residential school system, that suppressed Indigenous languages, identities, and systems of law and governance. It covers reconciliation topics, including: the constitutional protection of Aboriginal and Treaty rights by section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982, including Aboriginal title; the `honour of the Crown' and the duty to consult and accommodate; historic and modern treaties and land-claim settlement agreements; the revitalization of Indigenous laws and Indigenous self-determination; and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Examples will be drawn from particular areas of law (e.g., child and family services, criminal law, environmental and natural resource law), and the course will encourage the development of cross-cultural competencies, deeper understandings of racism, and inter-cultural skills.
