LAW579A

037885

This course provides participants with an overview of the practice and theory of international law as it has developed to address the concerns of indigenous peoples worldwide. The subject matter of the course now forms an important part of the legal practice and scholarship concerning indigenous peoples throughout the world. Given the doctrinal and practical limitations of domestic legal systems, indigenous peoples worldwide increasingly look to the processes of international law, especially its human rights regime, as tools in their efforts to survive as distinct communities with historically-based cultures, political institutions, and entitlements to traditional or ancestral lands. Indigenous peoples' demands have generated a great deal of activity within global and regional international human rights institutions, placing the concerns of these peoples at the forefront of international human rights law.

Particular attention in the course will be paid to developments in the United Nations as well as in regional and specialized international institutions, and to how those developments have practical applications for indigenous peoples in local settings.

PNP - Pass/Fail

Law