Abstract
In September 2018 the University of Victoria Faculty of Law on Vancouver Island, Canada welcomed its first cohort of students to its cutting edge and innovative joint degree programme in Canadian Common Law (Juris Doctor (JD)) and Indigenous Legal Orders (Juris Indigenarum Doctor (JID)). The JD/JID programme draws on the law faculty’s more than two decades of experience and research on Indigenous legal orders, and Indigenous legal education. It is the first of its kind in the world, combining intensive study of Canadian Common Law with rigorous engagement with Indigenous law. The rationale behind this programme is to engage with Indigenous legal orders using the depth, rigour, and critical focus that law schools bring to the study of other legal orders. Pushing against exclusion happening in higher education throughout the Commonwealth and beyond, the JD/JID programme aims to ensure that education in Indigenous Law is no longer an education in exclusion and displacement. This short piece provides necessary background to the programme, including structure and content, and details its transsystemic pedagogical and community-based learning approaches.
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Notes
Please note that much of the information contained in this article has been compiled through publicly available documentation on the World Wide Web and institutional records. See https://www.uvic.ca/news/topics/2018+jid-program-launch+media-release.
In 2018 the British Columbian (BC) government approved the programme and committed to provide core funding for the programme in its budget. For more on the launch event, see: https://www.uvic.ca/news/topics/2018+jid-program-launch+news.
For more information on ILRU, see https://www.uvic.ca/law/about/indigenous/indigenouslawresearchunit/index.php.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) was officially established on 2 June 2008, as required by the Indian Residential Schools Settlement. The purpose of this commission was to collect and document the history and continuing legacy of the Canadian Indian residential school system on Indigenous students and their families. In June 2015, the TRC released an Executive Summary of its findings, along with 94 ‘Calls to Action’ relating to reconciliation between Canadians and Indigenous peoples. The multi-volume report, which concluded that the residential school system amounted to ‘cultural genocide’ can be found here: https://nctr.ca/reports.php.
For more information, see https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2091412-trc-calls-to-action.html.
In July 2017, the 38th annual general assembly of the Assembly of First Nations passed a resolution of support for the JD/JID programme:
‘THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Chiefs-in-Assembly:
Support the University of Victoria Indigenous Law Program and the development of the Indigenous Legal Lodge.
Direct the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) to respectfully call upon the Government of Canada to support the establishment of the University of Victoria’s Indigenous Legal Lodge and for delivering the transformative Indigenous law program, including both the Common Law (JD) and Indigenous Legal Orders (JID) degree programs.’
Val Napoleon is from northeast British Columbia (Treaty 8) and a member of Saulteau First Nation. She is also an adopted member of the Gitanyow (Gitksan) House of Luuxhon, Ganada (Frog) Clan.
John Borrows is Anishinabe/Ojibway and a member of the Chippewa of the Nawash First Nation in Ontario, Canada.
David Milward is a member of the Beardy’s and Okemasis First Nation in Saskatchewan, Canada.
Professor Morales is Coast Salish and a member of Cowichan Tribes.
Reference
Napoleon, Val, and Hadley Friedland. 2014. Indigenous legal traditions: Roots to renaissance. In The Oxford handbook of criminal law, ed. Markus D. Dubber and Tatjana Hörnle. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Acknowledgements
The author acknowledges with respect the Lekwungen-speaking peoples on whose traditional territory the University of Victoria stands and the Songhees, Esquimalt and WSÁNEĆ peoples whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day. Sincere gratitude to Freya Kodar, Val Napoleon and John Borrows for taking the time to read over and provide helpful comments on earlier drafts.
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Ramshaw, S. Against Exclusion: Teaching Transsystemically, Learning in Community. Law Critique 30, 131–136 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10978-019-09245-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10978-019-09245-8