"PERSPECTIVES ON PLURALISM"
Monday, 9 December 2002
1.00pm-3.00pm
McKinnon Building (Bldg 67), Main Campus, University of Wollongong
Sponsored by the Centre for Canadian-Australian Studies, University of Wollongong
Speakers:
Professor John Borrows, Law Foundation Chair in Aboriginal Justice, Faculty of Law, University of Victoria, Canada, will speak on "Legal Pluralism and Aboriginal Peoples in Canada"
Dr Anne Waters, President of the American Indian Philosophy Association, USA, will speak on "Indigeneity, Self-Determination, and Sovereignty"
Professor Vincent O. Orlu Nmehielle, Bram Fischer Chair of Human Rights Law, The Mandela Institute, School of Law, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, will speak on "The Implementation of Sharia Law in Northern Nigeria"
(Abstracts provided below.)
This special event on the program of the 20th Annual Law and Society Conference, 9-11 December 2002 is sponsored by the Centre for Canadian-Australian Studies.
If you would like to attend "Perspectives on Pluralism", but cannot attend the full conference, one day registration will be available ($90). For details on registration, contact Felicia Martin <felicia_martin@uow.edu.au> Ph: (02) 4221 3382 Fax: (02) 4221 3188.
For information about the conference program contact Luke McNamara <lukem@uow.edu.au> Ph: (02) 42214415.
ABSTRACTS:
LEGAL PLURALISM AND ABORIGINAL PEOPLES IN CANADA
John Borrows
First Nations in Canada have legal norms, values and principles that are easily articulated as law. There is a need to be more attentive to these values in resolving disputes within Aboriginal communities, and between Aboriginal communities and others. By understanding and applying Aboriginal law many answers could be found to the pressing crisis within all communities of which Aboriginal peoples find themselves a part. This paper will provide an example of what First Nations law in Canada sounds like, and how it could be applied to local and national issues, consistent with the common law framework. This paper will also address certain hazards and obstacles that must be taken into account in articulating Aboriginal law in wider settings.
INDIGENEITY, SELF-DETERMINATION, AND SOVEREIGNTY
Anne Waters
This paper analyzes deeply held philosophical notions of Indigeneity, Self-Determination, and Sovereignty in the meaning context of North America’s Indigenous People. My context of discourse to relate concepts of indigeneity and self-determination is American Indian Sovereignty issues. My purpose is to develop a theoretical account of sovereignty that would ground principles of indigenous sustainability common to Indigenous Peoples of the Americas. I argue that indigenous self-determination, in the context of America’s historic indigenous sustainability cultures, requires a principle of valuing equal (moral) worth among individual human beings, and all our relations. Hence, a particular type of (moral) indigenous sovereignty is required to manifest deeply held (moral) values of an indigenous self-determination.
TO IMPLEMENT THE SHARIA IN NORTHERN NIGERIA OR NOT TO: THE CONSTITUTIONALITY IS THE QUESTION
Vincent Nmehielle
The recent introduction of the full Sharia, (Islamic legal system) by some Northern states in Nigeria raises a number of constitutional questions and impacts the supremacy of the Nigerian Constitution. The Constitution prohibits the promotion of religion by either the federal government or any of its components states and also provides for the freedom of religion and the right of all citizens to practice their religion. At the same time, any law enacted in the country, which is inconsistent with the Constitution, is void to the extent of the inconsistency. The application of the Sharia in Nigeria prior to its recent configuration was limited to civil matters such as succession, marriage, and the like, while crime was governed by the Penal Code, a federal legislation that is applicable to the Northern Sates with the aim of accommodating some Islamic tenets as a compromise with the Christian South in making Nigeria a secular state prior to independence. The paper examines the constitutionality of the unilateral extension of the Sharia to crimes and the human rights implication of such extension vis-à-vis the fundamental rights enshrined in the constitution and the human rights obligation of Nigeria under the various international instruments that she is party to. In other words, the paper deals with the question whether the alternative legal system, i.e., the Sharia should be applied to crimes rather than an already agreed-upon penal code without a veritable constitutional process. |
