Legal pluralism and indigenous legal traditions

Abstract

This chapter draws on the scholarship of Indigenous legal theorists and practitioners to explore some of the Indigenous legal traditions that might be drawn on to advance just forms of legal pluralism in the settler societies of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States. It questions whether the methodologies and tools provided by the field of legal pluralism assist in the pursuit of these goals. It aims to show that Indigenous legal traditions emphasize the interrelatedness of people and of people and the natural world, and stress the need for balanced differentiation as a sustaining tension in legal orders. It argues that these could provide a much-needed corrective to the tota..