Indigenous Peoples and the Law

Course content

This course examines the relationship between Indigenous Peoples and systems of national, regional and international law. Through in-depth examinination of specific contemporary examples students will grapple with legal issues associated with Indigenous Peoples rights as they relate to mining, land disputes, language, identity, health, and culture. Particular focus will be given to the rights of Inuit from Kalaallit Nunaat / Greenland, which Denmark has recognized as the only Indigenous Peoples within the Danish Realm.

The course also covers pluralist and Indigenous legal systems, as well as contemporary attempts to recognize Indigenous legal precepts in settler colonial systems of law, including rights of nature. Pluralist approaches within settler colonial domestic law will be drawn from Aotearoa New Zealand, Turtle Island / Canada and Australia. In addition, relevant case law from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the African Court of Human and Peoples Rights will contour discussions of relevant rights. Central to the course will be the specific rights of Indigenous Peoples elaborated in the negotiation and conclusion of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as well as the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention (ILO 169).

The course will draw upon comparative legal approaches, critical perspectives on international law including TWAIL (third world approaches to international law), post and decolonial legal studies, theories of legal pluralism, Indigenous legal studies, among others. The course will draw from a diversity of legal texts, highlighting especially Indigenous legal scholars.

 

Key questions and themes the course will cover include:

  • What is the definition of “Indigenous Peoples” in law?
  • What are “indigenous rights” and how are they enforced? Including how the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is operationalised and incorporated into domestic legal regimes.
  • What is the notion of Free Prior and Informed Consent and how should it and does it manifest in business conduct?
  • What are the strengths and weaknesses of the international human rights regime as it relates to Indigenous Peoples?
  • How are non-Western and marginalized epistemologies gaining legal recognition? Including the incorporation of Indigenous legal precepts and rights into settler constitutional regimes, with specific case studies.
  • What is legal pluralism and is any system of plurality compliant with the rule of law?
  • How have rights of and to nature have been recognized in domestic legal regimes and to what effect?
  • Contemporary interpretations of extant rights such as those which support the indigenous right to self-determination and the human right to a healthy environment
  • Future legal directions

 

Learning outcome

Knowledge:

  • Specialised legal knowledge on the relationship between Indigenous Peoples’ rights and the state, based on the highest standards in contemporary law and scholarship.
  • Specialised knowledge of the relationship between Indigenous Peoples rights and the legal and historical relationship between Denmark and Greenland.
  • A comprehensive understanding of the various approaches to the incorporation of respect for Indigenous rights into settler legal regimes, including through systems of legal pluralism, and on the capacity to identify and reflect on tensions within and between them.
  • Comprehensive understanding of the tensions and distinctions the rights of Indigenous Peoples and colonial systems of law

 

Skills:

  • Undertake analysis of law and legal systems that is academically rigorous, systematic, critical and independent, and develop new research-based knowledge
  • Adopt and apply critical legal methodologies to address the interrelationship between Indigenous Peoples rights and state and business prerogatives, towards the development of mutually beneficial solutions
     

Competences:

  • Students will gain competences in the provision of nuanced legal counsel across legal regimes that can be in tension;
  • They will be able to interpret and apply the law in ways that consider Indigenous People’s access to nature and self-determination and in advancing the development of legal solutions;
  • and advanced competences in structuring one’s own professional development and specialisation including through contributing to the selection of case studies, and determining the application of law to them

Teaching will be a mixture of lectures, group work, and discussions. Students are encouraged to share relevant news items at the beginning of each class and to lead discussions about how the law might apply / not apply / protects / fails to protect relevant rights and interests in those circumstances.

Readings will be posted on the course website and will be divided into mandatory and optional reading.

To ensure a diversity of perspectives and the most up-to-date teaching material, assigned readings will be drawn from a variety of authors and perspectives.

Students are not expected to buy any books as part of the course.

 

Students wishing to familiarize themselves with the themes of this course may wish to read:

  • Ntina Tzouvala, “Capitalism as Civilization” (2020, CUP)
  • Linda Tuhiwai Smith, “Decolonizing Methodologies” (3rd ed, 2021, Bloomsbury)
  • Anthea Roberts, “Is International Law International?” (2017, OUP)
  • Max Liboiron, “Pollution is Colonialism” (2021, Duke University Press)
  • Robin Wall Kimmerer, “Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants” (2013, Milkweed Editions)

 

It is illegal to share digital textbooks with each other without permission from the copyright holder.

Students should be proficient in legal English.

Oral
Collective
Continuous feedback during the course of the semester
Peer feedback (Students give each other feedback)
ECTS
15 ECTS
Type of assessment
Home assignment, 4 timer
Type of assessment details
Assigned individual written assignment, 4 hours
Aid
All aids allowed

Read about the descriptions of the individual exam forms, including formal requirements, scope and deadlines in the exam catalogue
 

Read about practical exam conditions at KUnet
 

Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
No external censorship
Exam period

Hand in date: 08-12-2025

Re-exam

Hand in date: 19-01-2026

Single subject courses (day)

  • Category
  • Hours
  • Preparation
  • 356,5
  • Seminar
  • 56
  • English
  • 412,5

Kursusinformation

Language
English
Course number
JJUA55329U
ECTS
15 ECTS
Programme level
Full Degree Master
Full Degree Master choice
Duration

1 semester

Placement
Autumn
Price
  1. Students enrolled at Faculty of Law or holding a pre-approval: No tuition fee
  2. Professionals: Please visit our website  
Schedulegroup
Please see timetable for teaching hours
Studyboard
Law
Contracting department
  • Law
Contracting faculty
  • Faculty of Law
Course Coordinator
  • Miriam Cullen   (13-706c756c64703166786f6f6871436d7875316e7831676e)
Saved on the 30-04-2025

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