Sovereignty, Justice, Indigenous Peoples

This subject examines the relation between Indigenous peoples, justice and the law, through the lens of sovereignty. It reflects critically on the concept of sovereignty, its powerful propensity to transcend its social origins, and its fortress status in law. Through first examining European law’s relation to Indigenous peoples from 1492, the course explores correlations between Europe’s economic expansion and the development of sovereignty, property, and race as key notions that underpin both individual nation-states and the international order they constitute. In bringing this analysis to bear on contemporary aspirations for structural justice, the course then considers the possibilities and limitations of current legal concepts and mechanisms – in both local and global domains – such as prevailing notions of sovereignty, native title, human rights, crimes against humanity, and transitional justice. Finally, the course presents examples of innovative contemporary interventions in support of structural justice in settler states, promoting new ways to think about their complex pasts and presents, and possible future directions.

• 1Reflect critically on the historical experiences of Indigenous peoples and the development of key western ideas and practices
• 2Reflect critically on conventional legal and political understandings of sovereignty discourse
• 3Reflect critically on the impact of European notions of sovereignty, property and race on Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples from 1492 to the present
• 4Reflect critically on the historical and legal underpinnings of contemporary relationships between Indigenous peoples and European law (and criminal justice systems) in settler states
• 5Reflect critically on contemporary possibilities for redress and reform in the local and international justice arenas.