As a settler state, Canada’s claims to sovereign control over territory are contested by Indigenous claims to land and to self-determination. Indigenous Peoples and the Future of Federalism presents legal analyses that explore forms of federalism and their potential to include multiple and divided sovereignties. This collection aims to advance reconciliation with Indigenous peoples in Canada and elsewhere by developing jurisprudence on the possibilities for a nation-to-nation relationship between Indigenous nations and Crown sovereignty. Contributors use legal creativity to explore how federalism can be structured to include the constitutional jurisdiction of Indigenous nations. Several chapters are grounded in the Canadian context while others connect the issues to international law and other settler colonial jurisdictions, recognizing how Indigenous resistance to settler laws and government decisions can at the same time be the enactment of Indigenous legalities and constitutional cultures. Ultimately, Indigenous Peoples and the Future of Federalism offers innovative ways for Canada to move forward from this challenge using existing constitutional mechanisms to give life to a plurinational Canadian federalism inclusive of the jurisdiction of Indigenous peoples.

Over the past twenty years, American Indian policy has shifted from self-determination to “Forced Federalism” as indigenous nations in the United States have encountered new threats from state and local tribes over such issues as taxation, gaming, and homeland security. This book demonstrates how today's indigenous nations have taken unprecedented steps to reorient themselves politically in response to such challenges to their sovereignty.

The time is ripe to revisit Canada's past and redress its historical wrongs. Yet in our urgency to imagine roads to reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, it is important to keep in sight the many other forms of diversity that Canadian federalism has historically been designed to accommodate or could also reflect more effectively. Canadian Federalism and Its Future brings together international experts to assess four fundamental institutions: bicameralism, the judiciary as arbiter of the federal deal, the electoral system and party politics, and intergovernmental relations. The contributors use comparative and critical lenses to appraise the repercussions of these four dimensions of Canadian federalism on key actors, including member states, constitutive units, internal nations, Indigenous peoples, and linguistic minorities. Pursuing the work of The Constitutions That Shaped Us (2015) and The Quebec Conference of 1864 (2018), this third volume is a testimony to Canada's successes and failures in constitutional design. Reflecting on the cultural pluralism inherent in this country, Canadian Federalism and Its Future offers thought-provoking lessons for a world in search of concrete institutional solutions, within and beyond the traditional nation-state.

The Canadian federal system was never designed to recognize Indigenous governance, and it has resisted change. But Indigenous communities have successfully negotiated the creation of self-governing regions. Most of these are situated within existing units of the Canadian federation, creating forms of nested federalism. This governance model is transforming Canada as it reformulates the relationship between Indigenous peoples and the state. Nested Federalism and Inuit Governance in the Canadian Arctic traces the journey toward self-governance in three northern regions: Nunavik, the Inuvialuit Settlement Region, and Nunatsiavut. This meticulous analysis provides new insight into the evolution and consequences of Indigenous self-government.

This volume explains and evaluates Australia's federal system and the options for reform from various comparative and disciplinary perspectives.

With a long history and deep connection to the Earth’s resources, indigenous peoples have an intimate understanding and ability to observe the impacts linked to climate change. Traditional ecological knowledge and tribal experience play a key role in developing future scientific solutions for adaptation to the impacts. The book explores climate-related issues for indigenous communities in the United States, including loss of traditional knowledge, forests and ecosystems, food security and traditional foods, as well as water, Arctic sea ice loss, permafrost thaw and relocation. The book also highlights how tribal communities and programs are responding to the changing environments. Fifty authors from tribal communities, academia, government agencies and NGOs contributed to the book. Previously published in Climatic Change, Volume 120, Issue 3, 2013.

This edited volume explores the obstacles to and opportunities for the development and entrenchment of a sustainable and representative multinational federalism. In doing so, it tackles a striking puzzle: on the one hand, scholars agree that deeply diverse multinational and multiethnic democracies should adopt federal structures that reflect and empower territorially concentrated diversity. On the other hand, there are very few, if any, real examples of enshrined and fully operative substantive multinational federalism. What are the main roadblocks to the adoption of multinational federalism? Can they be overcome? Is there a roadmap to realizing multinational federalism in the twenty-first century? In addressing these questions, this book brings together scholars from across the globe who explore a diverse range of cases from different and innovative analytical approaches. The chapters contribute to answering the above questions, each in their own way, while also addressing other important aspects of multinational federalism. The book concludes that the way forward likely depends on the emergence of a specific set of norms and a receptiveness to the complex institutional design.