2015 - 2016

1411-7127-01
  Strangers in their Own Land: Law, Colonialism and Indigenous                                         
FACULTY OF LAW
Lior Ben DavidTrubowicz - Law204Sun1800-2000 Sem  1
 
 
University credit hours:  2.0

Course description
Strangers in their own Land: Law, Colonialism and Indigenous Peoples - Dr. Lior Ben David
In the last third of the 20th century "indigenous peoples" attained legal recognition of social, political and cultural rights, in the framework of both international and domestic law. This recognition was not just an expression of the wave of multiculturalism which was prevalent in large parts of the world at that time, but also the product of demands for legal reform "from below", demands which were the result of the efforts and struggles of various social organizations and indigenous groups. On one hand, this legal recognition signaled innovation and change in the civil status of Indigenous populations, as individuals and communities alike. On the other hand, it is also a link in a long chain of continuous legal history, dating back to colonial law, and its significant contribution to creating "The Indians" or "The Indigenous" as a distinct social category. In this course we will examine the attitude of the law towards the indigenous populations from a comparative stance and both in historical and actual perspective, which will be directed at countries that were subject to processes of colonization; countries whose colonial legacy, including its legal component, continued to shape, in various ways, their socio-ethnic relations for countless years after gaining independence.
The goal of this course is to develop critical thinking on a variety of topics related to the position of indigenous people in colonial, domestic and international law. In this framework we will examine, inter alia, the contribution of the law to establishing relationships of power and control and shaping ethnic and cultural boundaries between indigenous people and other population groups; the role played by the law as a tool in legitimizing various practices of exploitation, dispossession, subjugation and exclusion towards Indigenous populations, but also its use as a means of assimilation or incorporation of these populations in the post-colonial Nation State, and as an arena of conflict and struggle for resistance and for safeguarding the rights and interests of different indigenous communities. Classes will be built thematically, with each session (or several sessions) devoted to discussion of one (or more) of the following issues (the list is not exhaustive and is not necessarily in chronological order): Who is "indigenous" and what are "indigenous peoples"? Colonialism, land and liberty, or how the natives lost their lands (and kept parts of them)? Liberalism and Law: assimilation or extinction? State law versus customary law; Criminology and criminalization of Indigenous populations; Cultural defenses; Human rights and natural resources; Indigenous movements and international law; Indigenous rights and identity politics; and integration versus multiculturalism.

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