"The project will unfold in two phases: the first, a conference to be held on October 25-26, 2001, the second, a publication to be produced in the Spring of 2002 concerning the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement. ... The Conference in intended to foster a critical and objective reflection on the Agreement in the light of its implementation over the past 25 years. Some twenty experts will present their views on various aspects of the Agreement, followed by discussion periods involving experts, invited participants, and observers. Special attention will be given to signatories of the Agreement who will participate in a Round Table at the conclusion of the Conference. ... Twenty expert panelists will present their critical analysis of some of the Agreement's content, followed by a debate presided over by a moderator. ... The Conference will be held over four half-day sessions, each of which will be devoted to the discussion of one of the four themes on the agenda, that is: Regional Development and the JBNQA, The Environment and the JBNQA, Governance and the JBNQA, Implementation of the JBNQA. Each session will ... [consist] of two periods: 1st Period: Presentation and exchange between panelists ... 2nd Period: Question period .... (Au)"--ASTIS [online] bibliography.

The adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by the United Nations General Assembly on 13 September 2007 was acclaimed as a major success for the United Nations system given the extent to which it consolidates and develops the international corpus of indigenous rights. This is the first in-depth academic analysis of this far-reaching instrument. Indigenous representatives have argued that the rights contained in the Declaration, and the processes by which it was formulated, obligate affected States to accept the validity of its provisions and its interpretation of contested concepts (such as 'culture', 'land', 'ownership' and 'self-determination'). This edited collection contains essays written by the main protagonists in the development of the Declaration; indigenous representatives; and field-leading academics. It offers a comprehensive institutional, thematic and regional analysis of the Declaration. In particular, it explores the Declaration's normative resonance for international law and considers the ways in which this international instrument could catalyse institutional action and influence the development of national laws and policies on indigenous issues.

Settling with Indigenous People describes the making of ten contemporary, mostly Australian, local and regional agreements and details the avenues through which such agreements can be implemented and sustained.The Australian regional agreements concern South West Australia, the Murray-Darling Basin, and Cape York. There is a chapter about the return of the Maralinga lands to its traditional owners and one detailing two local government agreements in central and southwest Australia. Urban agreements in Darwin and Vancouver are compared and there are also chapters on the North West Territories and Northern Quebec in Canada and the Ngai Tahu in the South Island of New Zealand.The discussion addresses:governance and leadershipnegotiation strategies, including the role of formal negotiating frameworksthe importance of process and outcomethe crucial impact of politics and timingthe significance of private sector engagementimplementation mechanismsThe chapters show how agreement-making has provided a forum in which indigenous groups can negotiate their needs and aspirations, including fundamental issues of recognition, inclusion and economic opportunity.The authors include indigenous and non-indigenous academics, and others who have been involved in negotiating agreements.

Agreement between: the Government of Quebec, the Societe d'energie de la Baie James, the Societe de développement de la Baie James, the Commission hydroelectrique de Quebec (Hydro-Quebec) and the Grand Council of the Crees (of Quebec), the Northern Quebec Inuit Association and the Government of Canada.

Globalization has challenged taken-for-granted relationships of rule in local, regional, national, and international settings. This unsettling of legitimacy raises questions. Under what conditions do individuals and communities accept globalized decision making as legitimate? And what political practices do individuals and collectivities under globalization use to exercise autonomy? To answer these questions, the contributors to Unsettled Legitimacy explore the disruptions and reconfigurations of political authority that accompany globalization. Arguing that we live in an era in which political legitimacy at multiple scales of authority is under strain, they show that globalization has also created demands for regulation, security, and the protection of rights and expressions of individual and collective autonomy within and across multiple political and geographic spaces. Instead of offering simplistic arguments for or against global governance, enhanced democracy, or economic integration, the contributors provide a sophisticated examination of the complexities of legitimacy and autonomy in a globalizing world.