Funding provided for study of Aboriginal systems

A team of experts led by University of Ottawa law professor Ghislain Otis has been awarded $1.9 million by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council for a large-scale project that will lead to a better, more sustainable legal diversity and coexistence of state and Aboriginal systems. The project, which is funded under SSHRC’s Partnership Grants program, groups 14 universities from seven countries, along with 10 partners, six of which are Aboriginal. As well, 40 students will have the opportunity to contribute to the project. Otis’s research project — a first of its kind — will compare and analyze the interaction between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal legal cultures in Canada, Africa and the Pacific Island Countries, to identify the conditions that foster legal diversity, particularly as they apply to three specific issues: land and resources, family and justice. The research will propose practical approaches that governments and Aboriginal peoples can adopt to support viable legal diversity.