Sovereignty's Alchemy
An Analysis of Delgamuukw v. British Columbia
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5807730 |
|---|---|
| Authors | John Borrows (University of Toronto, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1999 |
| Volume | 37 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 537-596 |
| Publication date | 1999-07-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Osgoode Hall law journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0030-6185 • E-ISSN: 2817-5069 |
| Publisher | Routledge (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.60082/2817-5069.1522 |
| OpenAlex | W32587023 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 60 |
In Delgamuukw v. British Columbia, the Supreme Court of Canada issued its long-awaited judgment on the status of Aboriginal title under section 35(1) of the Constitution Act, 1982. The decision was regarded as highly significant because it seemed to fundamentally alter the law of Aboriginal rights. This article suggests that while the case has somewhat positively changed the law to protect Aboriginal title, it has also simultaneously sustained a legal framework that undermines Aboriginal land rights. In particular, the decision's unreflective acceptance of Crown sovereignty places Aboriginal title in a subordinate position relative to other legal rights. This article examines how this result defeats the Court's own requirements for a just settlement with Aboriginal peoples. This review proceeds through exploring the Supreme Court's treatment of Aboriginal pleadings, evidence, content and proof of title, Aboriginal self-government, and the extinguishment of Aboriginal title in the Delgamuukw case. In investigating these issues, this article concludes by illustrating how a more rigorous application of the rule of law to the Crown in its dealings with Aboriginal peoples could generate greater equality and justice for Aboriginal peoples in their relations with the Canadian state
Common law · Constitution · Economic Justice · Economics · Government (linguistics · Political science · Politics · Settlement (finance · Sociology · Sovereignty · State (computer science · Supreme court · Indigenous Peoples' Rights and Law · Law · Legal principles and applications · Multicultural Socio-Legal Studies · Philosophy
First Nations sovereignty, Environmental Justice, and Degrowth in Northwest BC, Canada
I gnorance and historical geographies of Aboriginal exclusion
Indigenous Constitutionalism
Blocking pipelines, unsettling environmental justice
Embedded Bordering
Reclaiming Fire and Sovereignty
Songlines and Land Claims; Space and Place
The Nuxalk Sputc (Eulachon) Project
Extra-activism
Resisting Regulation
Experts’ understanding of the public
Le capitalisme racial et la production de villes coloniales de peuplement
Consorting with Stone
The Burden of Sovereignty
We know what it is when you do not ask us’
The power to consent
The residue of imperium
Decolonizing the Map
Finding the cracks
Dispossession by municipalization
Between Kitimat LNG Terminal and Monkey Beach
Constructing scale, eroding responsibility
The spatial politics of energy conflicts
Tailors-Made
Law's Archive
The Papal Bulls Dividing the Americas between Spain and Portugal
Indigenous storytelling and admissibility in common law courts
First Nations, Métis and Inuit presence in the Newfoundland and Labrador curriculum
Settler governmentality in Canada and the Algonquins of Barriere Lake
Contesting colonial beachheads
How Should Courts Respond to Political Questions? Exploring the Dialogical Turn in the Supreme Court of Canada’s Federalism and Indigenous Case Law
Whose Border? Contested Geographies and Columbia River Treaty Modernization
Unsettling Expectations
Aboriginal Self-Determination in Canada
Judicial Justification of Recent Developments in Aboriginal Law
The contested scales of indigenous and settler jurisdiction
Towards shared ownership
Policies for Other People
Assembling Sovereignty
Indigenous Sovereignty, Common Law, and Natural Law
Pipelines in the “Public Interest”? The Jurisdictional Work of a Concept in Canadian Pipeline Assessment
Modern treaty making and the limits of the law
In Search of Honourable Crowns and Legitimate Constitutions
The Acquisition of Africa (1870-1914)
Racial capitalism and the production of settler colonial cities
Reflections on Decolonization and X_aaydaG_a Tll Yahda TllG_uhlG_a
Applied Ethnobiology and Advocacy
The ties that blind
The Crown in a Multicultural Age
Honour in sovereignty
Toward Sovereign Indigenous Justice
The dead as property marker
The Kids don’t want reconciliation, they want Land Back
Eliminating Indigenous Jurisdictions
Radcliffe-Brown on Colonialism in Australia
Comfort and insecurity in the reproduction of settler coloniality
Anxious Reconciliation(s)
Cemetery as archive
Back to the land and waters
Fantasies of Sovereignty
| Unique citing works | 60 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2,5 |
| Citation span | 2002 - 2025 (24) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 58 |