Aboriginal Rights in Canada: From Title to Land to Territorial Sovereignty

Abstract

Despite vacillations in policy from treaty acknowledgement of tribal sovereignty and land rights through removal, allotment, reorganization, termination and self-determination, 1 the doctrinal foundations of Indian law have been fairly well settled in the United States since the Marshall Court decisions of the 1820s and 1830s. 2 Not so in Canada, where the courts are only beginning to address some major Aboriginal rights issues.3 Prominent among these are the issue of the nature of Aboriginal rights to land (commonly known as Aboriginal title), and the question of whether the Aboriginal peoples have an inherent right of self-government.4 Typically, Canadian courts have approached Aboriginal title and selfgovernment as distinct issues, to be decided in virtual isolation from one another.5 This article will examine recent case law addressing these issues, Osgoode Hall Law School, Toronto, Canada.I would like to thank Professors Hamar Foster and Brian Slattery for their very helpful comments on a draft of this article.

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