Comparative Indigenous Governance

Law 656B | 1 credit

Stephen Cornell, PhD & Daryle Rigney

January 9th-11th, 2022. 1:30-5:50pm

Across the globe, Indigenous peoples are engaged in the work of Indigenous governance regardless of whether they use that term or not. This course will examine different systems of Indigenous governance with an emphasis on Indigenous peoples living in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States.

While these four countries share certain features, like English legal and political heritages, they also differ in important ways. Those differences have affected the patterns, and outcomes of Indigenous self-determination and self-government efforts. Three questions form the subject matter of this course:

• What are the commonalities/differences among these four countries and their impacts on Indigenous assertions of self-governing power? 
• How and why do the patterns of Indigenous self-government vary across these four countries? 
• What, if anything, might Indigenous peoples learn from each other across these countries as they assert and implement rights of self-government?