NCJ Number
139219
Journal
Canadian Journal of Criminology Volume: 34 Issue: 3-4 Dated: special issue (July-October 1992) Pages: 479-502
Date Published
1992
Length
24 pages
Annotation
In an effort to ameliorate their position within the Canadian criminal justice system, some First Nations are seeking to recreate their traditional legal structures in a separate legal system.
Abstract
Such initiatives, particularly by the Mohawk people of the Kahnawake Nation, face a range of challenges. No challenge is perhaps as compelling as that posed by the erosion caused by history and government policy in many First Nations' traditional responses to breaches of the peace. Depending on the degree of such erosion, reconstruction of legal traditions as modern legal systems can require a great deal of inventiveness. This requirement raises the question of whether there is a point at which traditions become more invented than real. History, for example, is clearly an important dimension of tradition in general but is especially so for invented traditions, insofar as these constitute responses to novel situations by referencing old situations. Many native nations are committed to resurrecting their traditions within the realm of separate justice. Whether what they propose is really traditional is secondary to the importance of alleviating the current position of native people within the Canadian legal system. Through an analysis of the traditional system proposed by the People of the Longhouse of the Kahnawake Mohawk Nation, Hobshawm's theory of tradition is applied and critiqued as it applies to the emergence of traditional systems as modern First Nation legal systems. 14 references and 6 notes