Indigenous Peoples and the Future of Federalism

As a settler state, Canada’s claims to sovereign control over territory are contested by Indigenous claims to land and to self-determination. Indigenous Peoples and the Future of Federalism presents legal analyses that explore forms of federalism and their potential to include multiple and divided sovereignties. This collection aims to advance reconciliation with Indigenous peoples in Canada and elsewhere by developing jurisprudence on the possibilities for a nation-to-nation relationship between Indigenous nations and Crown sovereignty. Contributors use legal creativity to explore how federalism can be structured to include the constitutional jurisdiction of Indigenous nations. Several chapters are grounded in the Canadian context while others connect the issues to international law and other settler colonial jurisdictions, recognizing how Indigenous resistance to settler laws and government decisions can at the same time be the enactment of Indigenous legalities and constitutional cultures. Ultimately, Indigenous Peoples and the Future of Federalism offers innovative ways for Canada to move forward from this challenge using existing constitutional mechanisms to give life to a plurinational Canadian federalism inclusive of the jurisdiction of Indigenous peoples.

Table of Contents:
Foreword by James Sa’ke’j Youngblood Henderson Introduction: Indigenous Peoples in Federal Contexts Amy Swiffen with Shoshana Paget Section 1: Futures of Canadian Federalism 1. Creating Inclusive Canadian Federalism James Sa’ke’j Youngblood Henderson 2. Consent and the Resolution of Political Relations between Indigenous Peoples and the Canadian State Michael Asch 3. Struggles against Domestication: The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Constitutional Pluralism Gordon Christie Section 2: Decolonizing Constitutionalism 4. Politicizing Indigenous Self-Determination: The UNDRIP and Legal and Political Constitutionalism Yann Allard Tremblay 5. A Theory of Decolonial Constitutionalism: Insights from Latin America Roger Merino 6. UNDRIP, the Treaty of Waitangi, and the Developing Constitution of Aotearoa New Zealand Carwyn Jones Section 3: Pluri-national Federalism 7. Treaty Federalism, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and Section 25 as a Bridge across Legal Cultures Amy Swiffen 8. Room to Manoeuvre: The Legal Imagination of Sovereignty in M’Intosh, Worcester, and Caron Ryan Beaton 9. "To Invite New Worlds": Indigenous Constitutionalism and the Search for a Jurisgenerative Federalism in Canada Robert Hamilton Conclusion: The Futures of Federalism Joshua Nichols

About the Author :
Amy Swiffen is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Concordia University. Joshua Nichols is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Law at McGill University.