Legal tests available

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The need for more than just a basic understanding of complex legal issues - matters that usually require several years of work in a reputable law school -is an unfortunate fact of life for Aboriginal people in Canada.

So politics addicts and those who are fascinated by things legal have cause to celebrate: the latest versions of Carswell Publishing's Native law textbooks are hot off the press. No fewer than eight new or newly updated books are now on sale.

Lawyer Shin Imai's annotated Indian Act, always a must in any library where Indigenous issues are to be researched, is now updated to October 2000. The 2001 Annotated Indian Act and Related Aboriginal Constitutional Provisions is updated to include the six major court decisions handed down since the beginning of 1999 (Sundown, Corbiere, Gladue, H v. M, Marshall and Westbank v. B.C. Hydro). It's also been reorganized to make it easier to find what you're looking for.

Imai's Aboriginal Law Handbook, the most accessible legal primer for non-lawyers, has been updated from its first edition in 1993. It's still a required work for anyone who wishes to understand the ever-changing world of the law as it applies in Indigenous circles in Canada.

The University of Saskatchewan's Native Law Centre's James sakej Youngblood Henderson, Marjorie L. Benson and Isobel M. Findlay have worked together to produce a unique new text. Aboriginal Tenure in the Constitution of Canada looks at the legalities of incorporating Aboriginal title into the existing land tenure system in Canada. Written to deal with the legal breakthroughs mandated by the Delgamuukw decision, the book analyzes the historical reconciliation of Aboriginal tenure with Crown sovereignty.

Lorne M. Sossin's Boundaries of Judicial Review: The Law of Justiciability in Canada is the first attempt to put an analysis of the scope of judicial decision-making in Canada into book form. Sossin looks at the restrictions the law puts on courts and the limits of the powers of the courts.

The murky and confusing world of entitlement to status and/or band membership will get a lot less murky now that Larry Gilbert's Entitlement to Indian Status and Membership Codes in Canada is on sale. For the first time, all the information needed to deal with this complicated area of the law is in one place.

Renee Dupuis has written a French language analysis of Aboriginal law that will be useful to students, professors, lawyers and judges. Le statut juridique des peuples autochtones en droit canadien aims to make it easier for everyone to grasp the basics of Native law.

With the total amount of land claim payments to Aboriginal communities expected to reach the $8 billion mark this year, the publication of The Taxation and Financing of Aboriginal Businesses in Canada is timely. It's the first consolidated, comprehensive look at Aboriginal tax issues and a must read for business people who want to participate in the new economies being driven by the cash injected by the land claim settlements. Accountant Robert A. Brown and lawyer Robert C. Strother co-authored this important new work.

The latest edition of the Consolidated Native Law Statutes, Regulations and Treaties is now updated to May 2000 and, as always, allows quick, cross-referenced access to the actual acts, regulations and treaties.

All eight books retail for a total of $743. Individual prices range from $55 to $215.