Laws of the land: Aboriginal customary law, state law and sustainable resource management in Canada's north.

Abstract

This thesis presents a comparative analysis of Aboriginal customary law and Canadian law in relation to the management and conservation of natural resources on crown lands. By reference to field research carried out with respect to a specific context of Aboriginal resource management, the thesis highlights the sophistication and distinctiveness of the customary Aboriginal regulation of community-based common property resource harvesting and management in both subsistence and commercial use contexts. This perspective reveals the conflictual tendencies between Aboriginal and State systems of the regulation of resource management where the former has been largely unrecognized by the latter. An analysis of the relevant jurisprudence highlights the ethocentric bias mitigating against the recognition and acceptance of Aboriginal resource management that has continued right up to the present time.