Studying
indigenous legal traditions also involves learning central concepts that are quite different from the ones on which European legal systems are founded.
It is short (30 pages) and provides brief summaries of the research and consultation work done in areas such as globalization and the law, international informal banking,
indigenous legal traditions, the definition of «crime», the future of policing, secured financing on reserves, the protection of vulnerable workers, age and intergenerational relationships, and immigrant settlement.
There is growing recognition for opportunities to enliven
Indigenous legal traditions in Canadian law.
Bora Laskin Law School at Lakehead University has a compulsory standing course in
Indigenous Legal Traditions.
«Teaching McGill law students about
indigenous legal traditions,» The Montreal Gazette (5 January 5, 2017) Related document: Teaching McGill law students about
indigenous legal traditions
I admire that Professor Drake not only writes about
Indigenous legal traditions but also embodies its principals by seeking collective knowledge in her approach.
The Independent Assessment Report includes
Indigenous legal traditions, archaeological, environmental, and scientific analysis.
As we point out in
Indigenous Legal Traditions and the Future of Environmental Governance in Canada:
They are exploring responses within
Indigenous legal traditions to severely damaging interpersonal conduct, so they can fashion means for addressing that conduct that have legitimacy within the communities.
That recommendation calls urgently for institutional structures that can deepen our knowledge of
Indigenous legal traditions, develop our comprehension of Indigenous institutions, and explore how those traditions might be worked with and built upon today.
And according to aboriginal legal scholar Hannah askew, for non-Indigenous learners, understanding
Indigenous legal traditions will require not only finding a way to access the content of these traditions, but also learning how to interpret a completely different style of legal system − one that substitutes «a set of interlocking and overlapping processes» for rigid rules, and that requires that those processes be understood via the full range of senses: sound, touch, sight, taste and smell.
An example of how a lawyer can take
Indigenous legal traditions into account is offered in the reasons for decision in Lemaigre v. Première nation des Dénés de Clearwater River (2015 FC 601 (CanLII)-RRB-.
In her paper «
Indigenous Legal Traditions and the Challenge of Intercultural Legal Education in Canadian Law Schools,» Hannah askew describes the growing recognition, in Canada, that the development and protection of the rights of Indigenous people must draw not only on common law and civil law, but also on
Indigenous legal traditions.
advance and support initiatives to recognize and advance
Indigenous legal traditions in Canada, including:
The program also features a new «Indigenous Legal Lodge,» a publicly accessible educational resource for engagement, debate, public education and partnership on
Indigenous legal traditions and relationships between Indigenous communities, Indigenous peoples and non-Indigenous individuals including students, educators, businesses, governments and judges nationwide.
«It's important the faculty learn from the elders themselves about what
the indigenous legal traditions of people in Southwestern Ontario are,» says Waters.
Among the many ideas that have continued to resonate with me since the conference were Tanya Kappo's comments about how lawyers can learn about
Indigenous legal traditions as set out in Call to Action # 27.
She noted that we need to start from a personal, rather than professional standpoint and that formation of authentic relationships with Indigenous people is a necessary foundation to any understanding of
Indigenous legal tradition.
This case presented a clear opportunity to allow
Indigenous legal tradition to inform a decision.
Not exact matches
She also strives to incorporate the
legal traditions of her
Indigenous clients into the work she does on their behalf.
We hope that in addition to teaching about the common law and the civil law, we hope students will also understand that there's a basket of
legal indigenous traditions across the land.»
The
legal and practical impacts of federal deregulation, however, have had an important counterpoint in the dynamic revitalization process that another area of law has been undergoing in Canada today: the
legal traditions of
Indigenous peoples.
In particular, there are now a significant number of
Indigenous scholars in law schools across the country who have become conversant with their
legal traditions, who are continuing that apprenticeship with humility, dedication and rigour, and who are contributing to the process of reimagining the Canadian
legal landscape.
As more people participate in understanding and applying
Indigenous norms, the potential exists for the widening of our interpretive
legal communities and the improvement of each
legal tradition.
Estella also had the privilege of working as a researcher for the national Accessing Justice and Reconciliation Project, which focused on the revitalization of
Indigenous laws and
legal traditions.
It should be pointed out that
Indigenous laws and
legal orders are separate and distinct from common and civil law
traditions that are taught in university law schools.
The joint degree will be taught by comparing and contrasting
indigenous peoples»
legal traditions with those of common law.
The level of funding extended to representative bodies does not recognize the cost of facilitating the recognition by the non-
Indigenous legal system of the
traditions and customs that belong to an
Indigenous legal system.
(55) Cohen saw the doctrine of domestic dependent nations as reflecting the twin international
legal traditions of attribution of sovereignty to
Indigenous peoples and the guardianship principle.