Law Commons^™

Amdip Annual Meeting Of Law School Diversity Professionals: Hosted By Roger Williams University School Of Law: April 23-25, 2024, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Amicus Brief Of Native Nations In Montana, Kathryn Shanley, And Denise Juneau, Held V. State Of Montana, Montana Supreme Court Docket No. Da 23-0575, Monte Mills, Jeremiah Chin, Mia Montoya Hammersley, Fredrick Ole Ikayo, Clare Derby, Natasha De La Cruz

Court Briefs

Montana’s Constitution specifically recognizes and protects the right of Native Nations and Indigenous individuals to preserve and sustain their cultural traditions through the education of future generations. These rights are inherently tied to the right to a clean and healthful environment.

The Real Wrongs Of Icwa, James G. Dwyer

Faculty Publications

Haaland v. Brackeen rejected federalism-based challenges to the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) but signaled receptivity to future challenges based on individual rights. The adult-focused rights claims presented in Haaland, however, miss the mark of what is truly problematic about ICWA. This Article presents an in-depth, children’s-rights based critique of the Act, explaining how it violates a fundamental right against state exertion of power over central aspects of persons’ private lives to their detriment for illicit purposes. In fact, the Act’s defenders are complicit in the same sort of government violence that motivated ICWA’s enactment—erasing aspects of children’s heritage …

Federal Indian Law As Method, Matthew L. M. Fletcher

Articles

Morton v. Mancari is well-known in Indian law circles as a foundation for the tribal self-determination era, which is generally understood to have begun in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The case involved an Act of Congress that required the federal “Indian Office” (now called the Bureau of Indian Affairs) to grant preference in employment to “Indians.” The case is typically understood as the basis for analyzing how federal statutes that apply exclusively to Indian people do not implicate the anti-discrimination principles of the United States Constitution. This understanding of the case, while correct, is too narrow.

Evolving Sovereignty Relationships Between Affiliated Jurisdictions: Lessons For Native American Jurisdictions, Vaughan Carter, Charlotte Ku, Andrew P. Morriss

Faculty Scholarship

Though sovereignty is principally associated with governance over a territory and freedom to act in the international arena, this article examines sovereignty as empowerment. The study tests the applicability to Native American jurisdictions of the experiences of fifteen case study jurisdictions presently associated with the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and France in shared sovereign relationships. The focus is on the evolution of those relationships and opportunities for development where jurisdictions do not attain full control over their affairs. The case studies examine the relationships from the perspectives of political, economic, and cultural sovereignty. The article further examines the relationships in …

Brief Of Legal Scholars As Amici Curiae In Support Of Respondents, Becerra V. San Carlos Apache Tribe, Becerra V. Northern Arapaho Tribe, U.S. Supreme Court Docket Nos. 23-250 & 23-253, Gregory Ablavsky, Seth Davis, Patty Ferguson-Bohnee, Ethan J. Leib, Dan Lewerenz, Nazune Menka, Monte Mills, Richard Monette, Joseph William Singer, Gerald Torres, Rebecca Tsosie

Court Briefs

Congress has enacted into law thousands of statutory provisions containing rules of construction. These rules direct courts to the permissible interpretations of the statutes that Congress enacts.

With respect to the self-determination contracts between Indian tribes and the United States at issue in these cases, the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (ISDA) prescribes two interpretive rules that serve as congressional directives to this Court. First, each provision of the self-determination contract must be construed liberally for the benefit of the tribe. Second, the same is true of the statute itself: each provision of the ISDA must be construed liberally …

Looted Cultural Objects, Elena Baylis

Articles

In the United States, Europe, and elsewhere, museums are in possession of cultural objects that were unethically taken from their countries and communities of origin under the auspices of colonialism. For many years, the art world considered such holdings unexceptional. Now, a longstanding movement to decolonize museums is gaining momentum, and some museums are reconsidering their collections. Presently, whether to return such looted foreign cultural objects is typically a voluntary choice for individual museums to make, not a legal obligation. Modern treaties and statutes protecting cultural property apply only prospectively, to items stolen or illegally exported after their effective dates. …

Biopiracy: Using New Laws And Databases To Protect Indigenous Communities, Cleo-Symone Scott

Law Student Publications

Indigenous people have a historical link to those who inhabited a country or region at the time when people of different cultures or origins arrived. Traditionally, indigenous people have a special relationship with their ancestral environments. But their way of living has long been under threat. The land that indigenous people live on is home to over 80% of our planet’s biodiversity, but it continues to be appropriated and plundered due to bioprospecting or, as some call it, biopiracy. Bioprospecting is defined as “the exploration and information gathering of genetic and biochemical material to develop commercial products.” While innovation is …

A Human Rights And Legal Analysis Of The Understanding Our Roots Report, Naiomi Metallic, Cheryl Simon

Reports & Public Policy Documents

In October 2023, the University released Understanding Our Roots - Nstikuk tan wtapeksikw Report written by the Task Force on Settler Misappropriation of Indigenous Identity. The Report recommends the creation of a Standing Committee who would verify claims to Indigenous identity by students, faculty and staff seeking to benefit from any opportunity at the University that prioritizes access for Indigenous peoples, as well as investigate and recommend sanction in cases of suspected academic fraud whereby an individual assumes an Indigenous identity. The Report does not address or respond to potential legal issues and rights violations arising from its recommendation. To …

Bibliography On Indigenous Rights In Canada, 1995-2023, Leslie Haddock, Kent Mcneil

All Papers

No abstract provided.

Review Of The Book Denial Of Genocides In The Twenty-First Century, John A. Drobnicki

Publications and Research

Review of the book Denial of Genocides in the Twenty-First Century, edited by Bedross Der Matossian.

Indigenous Influence On The Rights Of Nature Movement, Vanessa Racehorse

Faculty Scholarship

The growing recognition of the rights of nature is a blend of both modern conservation efforts and principles reflected in traditional Indigenous stewardship that should be an essential component of the discourse around environmental justice. This article provides an overview of the laws that invoke the rights of nature that Indigenous perspectives and practices regarding environmental preservation have influenced. This discussion pays particular attention to the White Earth Band of Ojibwe's "Rights of Manoomin" law and Manoomin v. Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (White Earth Band of Ojibwe Tribal Ct. 2021), the first rights of nature case filed in a …

Twenty Years After Krieger V Law Society Of Alberta: Law Society Discipline Of Crown Prosecutors And Government Lawyers, Andrew Flavelle Martin

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Krieger v. Law Society of Alberta held that provincial and territorial law societies have disciplinary jurisdiction over Crown prosecutors for conduct outside of prosecutorial discretion. The reasoning in Krieger would also apply to government lawyers. The apparent consensus is that law societies rarely exercise that jurisdiction. But in those rare instances, what conduct do Canadian law societies discipline Crown prosecutors and government lawyers for? In this article, I canvass reported disciplinary decisions to demonstrate that, while law societies sometimes discipline Crown prosecutors for violations unique to those lawyers, they often do so for violations applicable to all lawyers — particularly …

Writing And Resisting Colonial Genocide, Heidi Matthews, Luann Good Gingrich, Joel Ong

Articles & Book Chapters

Canada has pursued policies of Indigenous assimilation and annihilation, many of which continue today. Among others, these include ‘Indian residential schools’, the Indian Act, welfare-state child removals, the Sixties Scoop, the prohibition of cultural practices, forced sterilization and environmental destruction. We are scholars co-leading a large interdisciplinary programme of research studying ‘colonial genocide’. Our research seeks to understand how historic colonialism and its contemporary manifestations rely on genocidal logic for power and profit. While we begin in Turtle Island, our work has global application. The act of naming is a powerful analytical and political tool, and ‘genocide’ is one of …

Climate Change And The Courts: Balancing Stewardship And Restraint, Susan Glazebrook

Judicature International

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Canadian Justice, Indigenous Injustice: The Gerald Stanley And Colten Boushie Case, F. Tim Knight

Librarian Publications & Presentations

No abstract provided.

(Some) Land Back...Sort Of: The Transfer Of Federal Public Lands To Indian Tribes Since 1970, Audrey Glendenning, Martin Nie, Monte Mills

Articles

Federal public lands in the United States were carved from the territories of Native Nations and, in nearly every instance, required that the United States extinguish pre-existing aboriginal title. Following acquisition of these lands, the federal government pursued various strategies for them, including disposal to states and private parties, managing lands to allow for multiple uses, and conservation or protection. After over a century of such varied approaches, the modern public landscape is a complex milieu of public and private interests, laws and policies, and patchwork ownership patterns. This complexity depends on—and begins with—the history of Indigenous dispossession but subsequent …

Natural Law, Assumptions, And Humility, Ezra Rosser

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This review of Natural Property Rights celebrates Eric Claeys’s efforts to resuscitate natural law as a viable approach to property law. Although readers unlikely to be convinced that natural law is the way to best understand property rights, Claeys succeeds in breathing new life into natural law. Natural Property Rights’ emphasis on use as property law’s fundamental value creates space to reconceptualize the rights of property owners and the place of non-owners within a just theory of property rights. The main critiques of Natural Property Rights offered in this review center around the choice to prioritize rights over duties and …

Fishing And Fisheries Under International Water Law: A Dialogue Between Professor Gabriel Eckstein And Professor Paul Stanton Kibel, Gabriel Eckstein, Paul Stanton Kibel

Faculty Scholarship

On April 10 and 11, 2023, the Center on Urban Environmental Law (CUEL) at Golden Gate University School of Law hosted a two-day webinar on International Law Aspects of Fisheries and Hydropower in Europe. To open the webinar, Professor Gabriel Eckstein (of Texas A&M University School of Law) and Professor Paul Stanton Kibel (of Golden Gate University School of Law) participated in a keynote dialogue titled Fishing and Fisheries under International Water Law. What follows is a transcription of this dialogue between Professor Eckstein and Professor Kibel.

Surviving Castro-Huerta: The Historical Perseverance Of The Basic Policy Of Worcester V. Georgia Protecting Tribal Autonomy, Notwithstanding One Supreme Court Opinion's Errant Narrative To The Contrary, John P. Lavelle

Faculty Scholarship

Oklahoma v. Castro‑Huerta is an unprecedented attack on the autonomy of Native American nations in the United States. The Supreme Court held that Oklahoma had jurisdiction over a crime committed by a non‑Indian perpetrator against an Indian victim within the Cherokee Reservation’s boundaries. The decision posits that states presumptively have jurisdiction, concurrent with the federal government, over crimes by non‑Indians against Indians in Indian country. But this proposition is at war with a bedrock principle of Indian law, namely, that reservations are essentially “free from state jurisdiction and control,” a policy that “is deeply rooted in the Nation’s history.” That …

Brief Of Amici Curiae Law Professors & Indian Law Experts In Support Of Petition For A Writ Of Certiorari, Smith V. United States, Barbara L. Creel, Verónica Gonzales-Zamora, Marc-Tizoc Gonzaléz

Faculty Scholarship

The decision reached by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, permitting the application of state criminal law to punish a tribal member whose alleged criminal conduct occurred on an Indian reservation and caused no harm to another person—solely based on the Assimilative Crimes Act (ACA), 18 U.S.C. § 13 is contrary to numerous treaties, acts of Congress, and foundational principles
of tribal sovereignty as construed and upheld by this Court’s federal Indian law jurisprudence. Allowing the Ninth Circuit decision to stand renders express
congressional authorizations and limitations on federal and state criminal jurisdiction over Indians in …

Infrastructure, Jurisdiction, Extractivism: Keywords For Decolonizing Geographies, Shiri Pasternak, Deborah Cowen, Robert Clifford, Tiffany Joseph, Dayna Nadine Scott, Anne Spice, Heidi Kiiwetinepinesiik Stark

Articles & Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

Brief For Amici Curiae Prof. Daniel Mccool, Prof. Ezra Rosser And Prof. David E. Wilkins, In Support Of Respondents, Ezra Rosser, David E. Wilkins

Amicus Briefs

No abstract provided.

An Expedition To Public Lands, Matthew B. Olsen

CAFE Symposium 2023

A look into common ideas appearing in the US public land system. These ideas include "nature as commodity," "nature as unpeopled," and "nature as pristine." The specific areas looked into are Havasu National Wildlife Refuge, Prescott National Forest, Grand Canyon National Park, Gold Butte National Monument, and Death Valley National Park.

Brief Of Tribal Nations And Indian Organizations As Amici Curiae In Support Of The Navajo Nation, U.S. Supreme Court Docket No. 21-1484, Monte Mills, Heather D. Whiteman Runs Him, Dylan R. Hedden-Nicely, John E. Echohawk, Steven C. Moore, David L. Gover, Joe M. Tenorio, Ada Montague Stepleton, Morgan E. Saunders, Wesley James Furlong, Sydney Tarzwell

Court Briefs

SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT: The Winters Doctrine recognizes and gives effect to the promises made by the United States in treaties, congressionally ratified agreements, and executive orders that Tribal Nations would retain permanent and viable homelands. These promises, made in exchange for the Tribal Nations’ cession of billions of acres of land, paved the way for the non-Indian settlement of the West. Although every tribal homeland is unique, invariably, each requires water to be livable. Applying the canons of construction this Court has developed as part of its federal Indian law jurisprudence, as well as the history and circumstances surrounding the …

Due Process And Equal Protection In Michigan Anishinaabe Courts, Matthew Fletcher

Articles

In 1968, largely because the United States Constitution does not apply to tribal government activity, Congress enacted the Indian Civil Rights Act–a federal law that requires tribal governments to guarantee due process and equal protection to persons under tribal jurisdiction. In 1978, the Supreme Court held that persons seeking to enforce those federal rights may do so in tribal forums only; federal and state courts are unavailable. Moreover, the Court held that tribes may choose to interpret the meanings of “due process” and “equal protection” in line with tribal laws, including customary laws. Since the advent of the self-determination era …

Hualapai Tribe Water Rights Settlement Act Of 2022, United States 117th Congress

Native American Water Rights Settlement Project

The purposes of this Act are—(1) to resolve, fully and finally, all claims to rights to water in the State, including the Verde River, the Bill Williams River, and the Colorado River, of— (A) the Hualapai Tribe, on behalf of the Hualapai Tribe and the members of the Hualapai Tribe; and (B) the United States, acting as trustee for the Hualapai Tribe, the members of the Hualapai Tribe, and the allottees; (2) to authorize, ratify, and confirm the Hualapai Tribe water rights settlement agreement, to the extent that agreement is consistent with this Act; (3) to authorize and direct the …

White Mountain Apache Tribe Water Rights Quantification Act, United States 117th Congress

Native American Water Rights Settlement Project

The purpose of this amendment to the White Mountain Apache Tribe Water Rights Quantification Act of 2010 is to extend the enforceability date for the deadline for publication of the statement of findings to December 30, 2027 with a repeal date of December 31, 2027 of Title III of the Act for failure to meet the revised deadline. Certain provisions include clarifying funding, cost indexing, cost overrun subaccount (increase in authorized appropriations and prohibition), use of funds (expenditures), oversight and accounting, and other purposes.

Colorado River Indian Tribes Water Resiliency Act Of 2022, United States 117th Congress

Native American Water Rights Settlement Project

This Act authorizes the Colorado River Indian Tribes to enter into lease or exchange agreements and storage agreements relating to water of the Colorado River allocated to the Colorado River Indian Tribes, and for other purposes.

(Re)Building The Master's House: Dismantling America's Colonial Politics Of Extraction And Exclusion, Marissa Jackson Sow

Law Faculty Publications

On February 10, 2021, and in the days thereafter, liberal American commentators showered Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett with superlatives and praise due to her masterful takedown of former President Donald Trump during his impeachment trial for incitement of the January 6, 2021 Capitol Riot. Referring to a picture of Plaskett wearing a knee-length blue dress with draped sleeves, the political strategist (and daughter of House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi) Christine Pelosi took to Twitter to note that “[n]ot all superheroes wear capes. This one does!”

Plaskett is one of many Black Americans who has done the hard work of cleaning up …