Political Science 3388E Lecture Notes - Legal Personality, Social Darwinism
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17 Nov 2011
School
Department
Course
Professor
Indigenous Rights
March 4, 2010
12:34 PM
•Defined
oConsider themselves separate from the dominant society
oConnected to their land
•Physically
Hunting /agriculture
•Symbolically
Spiritually/historically
oOccupied the land first
•Concerns
oExperience political, economic, social & cultural subordination to the
dominant populations around the world
•Original Legal Personality
oIndicates who is a legal entity
•Who is given rights and responsibilities in society
•Is an organizational tool
Who is in, and who is out
oHow do they decide who had legal personality?
•Capacity to exercise rights and perform duties
•Capacity to understand the consequences of your choices
oAt time of conception, excluded:
•Women
•Slaves
•Indigenous People
•Original International Legal Personality
oAdopted at the international level to determine which nations can be
considered as sovereign states
•Initially, only Christian states were considered legitimate
•Indigenous people did not qualify to have international legal
personality
•A Brief History
oColonization and the Denial of Rights
•Drew heavily on liberal thinking
Respect for sovereignty
Respect for property rights
Rule of Law
Meant to control the power of the state over the individual
State supposed to protect the rights of individuals
•Life, Liberty, and Property (American Constitution)
•Great debate in 17th-18th century over whether or not
indigenous peoples should be considered human beings