TY - JOUR

T1 - Conceptualizing the authority of the sovereign state over indigenous peoples

AU - Wheatley, Steven

N1 - http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=LJL The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, Leiden Journal of International Law, 27 (2), pp 371-396 2014, © 2014 Cambridge University Press.

PY - 2014/6

Y1 - 2014/6

N2 - The objective of this article is to evaluate whether the distinctive nature of the international law on indigenous peoples reflected in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) can be explained by reference to the service conception of authority developed by Joseph Raz. The article rejects arguments that the distinctive character of UNDRIP can be justified by ideas of ‘Indigenous Sovereignty’, not least because ‘sovereignty’ was developed in Western political thought in contradistinction to a constructed and imagined dystopian state of nature endured by the indigenous populations of the Americas. Instead, the work seeks to understand the UNDRIP regime in the light of Raz’s conceptualization of legitimate political authority, concluding that the inchoate and under-theorized international law on the rights of indigenous peoples becomes comprehensible within this framework.

AB - The objective of this article is to evaluate whether the distinctive nature of the international law on indigenous peoples reflected in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) can be explained by reference to the service conception of authority developed by Joseph Raz. The article rejects arguments that the distinctive character of UNDRIP can be justified by ideas of ‘Indigenous Sovereignty’, not least because ‘sovereignty’ was developed in Western political thought in contradistinction to a constructed and imagined dystopian state of nature endured by the indigenous populations of the Americas. Instead, the work seeks to understand the UNDRIP regime in the light of Raz’s conceptualization of legitimate political authority, concluding that the inchoate and under-theorized international law on the rights of indigenous peoples becomes comprehensible within this framework.

KW - Indigenous peoples

KW - UNDRIP

KW - Indigenous Sovereignty

KW - Joseph Raz

KW - legitimate political authority

U2 - 10.1017/S092215651300037X

DO - 10.1017/S092215651300037X

M3 - Journal article

VL - 27

SP - 371

EP - 396

JO - Leiden Journal of International Law

JF - Leiden Journal of International Law

SN - 0922-1565

IS - 2

ER -