Vendredi 5 décembre 2025, 15h-17h (Local W-5215)
Aaron Mills (McGill University)
Comparative Legality: How to Recognize Indigenous Law as Law
Résumé (la conférence sera en anglais): Different speakers in Canada use the term "Indigenous law" to mean different things. At least two families of "Indigenous law" usages are discernible: positive and what I call "rooted". I will argue that the two usage families are distinguished by their distinct models of legality, understood as legitimate legal authority: power-over and power-with, respectively. The distinction results in conceptions of Indigenous law which appear to be different in kind, characterized by different kinds of legal norms (rules vs teachings), different legal discourses and practices of claim-making (rights vs responsibilities), and different processes and institutions for law's generative, interpretive, and applicative functions (legislative, adjudicatve, and administrative vs deliberative ). The power-over model of Indigenous legality is readily cognizable to legal practitioners, state actors, and academics, and it receives considerable attention from them. The power-with model of Indigenous legality, with resonates more with Indigenous grassroots (elders, medicine people, and many ordinary Indigenous community members and their allies) is largely occluded by state authority and by the work of legal and political professionals. This power imbalance must be corrected.
Pour celles et ceux qui préfèreraient suivre la conférence à distance, merci de vous inscrire au lien suivant:
https://uqam.zoom.us/meeting/register/m4I-iekBSSqOfqBRPlFRVg