Panel discusses indigenous peoples’ legal traditions

This afternoon, doctoral students will discuss indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination and legal traditions in a panel discussion about Global Legal Pluralism: Canada and Latin America.

The panel is part of York’s Colloquium on the Global South, a series of weekly discussions presented throughout the academic year. The series is organized by the University Consortium on the Global South and aims to stimulate wide-ranging academic discussion of social justice, sustainability, ethnicity and other related issues.

Today’s panel will explore the ways in which different theories of legal pluralism shape our conception of the unity of law. While presenters will examine different aspects of indigenous law, they are all interested in how the articulation of legal pluralism as a goal has altered the political and legal aspirations of indigenous peoples in Canada and Latin America.

Following are the presenters for today’s panel.

Kirsten Manley-Casimir, a PhD student in the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Law, will talk about "The Spaces We Inhabit: Two Approaches to Indigenous Resurgence". She explores the way two different theoretical explorations have affected her conception of the place of indigenous legal traditions in the Canadian state.

Elena Cirkovic, a PhD candidate at York’s Osgoode Hall Law School, will consider "Global Legal Pluralism and Indigenous Peoples Right To Self-Determination". She discusses the way public international law and the scholarship which supports it shapes the legal claims of indigenous peoples.

Sari Graben, also a PhD candidate at Osgoode, will deliver a talk on "Instituting Institutional Pluralism: How to Value Indigenous Legal Traditions". She will examine the relationship between theories of legal pluralism and the jurisprudential context in which claims for legal pluralism must be contextualized.

The panel takes place today from 2:30 to 4:30pm, in 305 York Lanes. Admission is free and no registration is required.

Two more panels are scheduled this month as part of the Colloquium on the Global South:

  • March 21 – Ethics and Politics of Fieldworking in the Global South
  • March 28 – Protracted Refugee Situations: A challenge for the Global South

For more information about the colloquium, visit the University Consortium on the Global South Web site.