Indigenous Peoples, the Environment, and Law: An Anthology.

• Author: McAllister, Sean T.
• Position: Book review

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES, THE ENVIRONMENT, AND LAW: AN ANTHOLOGY, Edited by Lawrence Watters, Carolina Academic Press, 2004. pp. 439.

INTRODUCTION

Indigenous peoples, the environment, and the law have long been sources of conflict all over the world. While humanity is struggling to adapt to the increasing homogenization of cultures, economies, and environments, indigenous peoples are threatened in unique ways by globalization, neo-liberalism, economic development, climate change, environmental degradation, and technological advancements. National and international institutions increasingly have chosen or been forced to deal with the implications of integrating environmental rights, human rights, anthropological and historical facts, scientific knowledge, and economic imperatives with evolving notions of indigenous peoples' fundamental rights.

Each year, scholarly journals are filled with broad ranging discussions of various conflicts involving indigenous peoples, the environment, and the law. "Indigenous Peoples, The Environment, and Law: An Anthology," edited by Lawrence Watters, plays an essential role in collecting many of the best articles on the subject in one book. The book, which includes essays from authors from numerous countries between 1987 and 2004, provides an invaluable one-stop resource for seasoned scholars seeking a holistic look at this important topic as well as for relative newcomers to the subject seeking a broad introduction. The impression this book will leave readers with the impression that, while conflicts between indigenous peoples and dominant societies over environmental and human rights are grounded in unique historical and anthropological realities, common threads of emerging international norms tie this field together into a manageable whole.

The editor, Professor Lawrence Watters, displays his formidable grasp of the field by assembling a collection of essays packed with information, which he has skillfully edited down to their core. Professor Watters has been a visiting professor at the University of Wuhan in China, the University of Auckland, New Zealand, the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, and the University of Hanover, Germany, among other places. In addition, he authored the introduction, a chapter on Scandinavian indigenous peoples, and contributed as a co-author to a chapter on the well-known Makah whaling dispute in the United States. Professor Watters' concise introduction makes clear that the selections in the book present an interdisciplinary approach to evaluating conflicts between indigenous peoples, the environment, and the law. Professor Watters explains that the theme of the book is the common experience of indigenous peoples and their "struggle for identity, along with the paradox of dependence on the nation-state and their pursuit of a measure of autonomy." (2)

This anthology clearly shows how international and national laws dealing with the rights of indigenous peoples in relation to the environments upon which they depend are moving from the mantle to the tool box. Indigenous peoples and their allies are no longer satisfied leaving useful legal concepts as lofty inspirational goals to be praised in the abstract. Instead, indigenous peoples are attempting to apply these tools to address the problems they face in various countries. A major contribution of this book is that it shows the osmotic, or reciprocal, relationship between international and national laws. These systems interact, communicate, and influence each other in important ways. At times, national strategies for addressing indigenous peoples' claims for justice supplement international legal norms, while at other times international law norms are constricted by limited application at the national level. In this way, the "Indigenous Peoples, the Environment, and Law" effectively illustrates the living and evolving nature of the law in relation to indigenous peoples and the environment.

The anthology is organized in four parts. The selections first set out the basic toolbox of international legal norms applicable to indigenous peoples and then show how those tools are applied in various national and international fora. The anthology presents a broad collage of progress and innovation, demonstrating that respect for indigenous peoples' rights, the environment, and the law are complementary, not contradictory, goals.

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES, THE ENVIRONMENT, AND LAW

(1) Indigenous Peoples and the Emergence of a Framework

James A.S. Musisi's essay opens the book and immediately lays out in a sober tone the role and state of indigenous peoples in the modern legal paradigm, stating--

 [Indigenous peoples'] role has always been pushed into the background and ignored .... [I]n spite of international legal instruments to safeguard the human rights of these people as far as their environment is concerned, the present global mode of production has instead set a trend for their extinction .... [T]hese people are increasingly an

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