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Articles 1 - 4 of 4

Full-Text Articles in History

The Hidden Constitution: Aboriginal Rights In Canada, Brian Slattery Jan 1984

The Hidden Constitution: Aboriginal Rights In Canada, Brian Slattery

Brian Slattery

This article reviews the constitutional and historical grounds for Aboriginal and treaty rights in Canada and discusses the legal effects of entrenching these rights in the Constitution of Canada in 1982.


The Land Rights Of Indigenous Canadian Peoples, Brian Slattery Jan 1979

The Land Rights Of Indigenous Canadian Peoples, Brian Slattery

Brian Slattery

The problem examined in this work is whether the land rights originally held by Canada's Indigenous peoples survived the process whereby the British Crown acquired sovereignty over their territories, and, if so, in what form. The question, although historical in nature, has important implications for current disputes involving Aboriginal land claims in Canada. It is considered here largely as a matter of first impression. The author has examined the historical evidence with a fresh eye, in the light of contemporaneous legal authorities. Due consideration is given to modern case-law, but the primary focus is upon the historical process proper.


French Claims In North America, 1500-59, Brian Slattery Jan 1978

French Claims In North America, 1500-59, Brian Slattery

Brian Slattery

This article reviews the history of early French explorations in North America in their diplomatic context and concludes that, contrary to common assumptions, there is little reliable evidence that France laid official claim to North American territories prior to 1560 or that it viewed these territories as territorium nullius or denied the capacity and rights of Indigenous American peoples.


French Claims In North America, 1500-59, Brian Slattery Dec 1977

French Claims In North America, 1500-59, Brian Slattery

Brian Slattery

Historians usually trace the origins of Canada to the initial explorations of England and France, with emphasis upon the French voyages of the early sixteenth century involving Verrazzano, Cartier, and Roberval. France, it is said, officially asserted territorial rights in North America at this era, based upon the discoveries and acts of taking possession of its emissaries, and that these claims were sustained, if in a somewhat desultory manner, until the successful colonizing efforts of the following century. The French crown is thought to have treated North America as unowned land open to appropriation, territorium nullius, rejecting the claims of …