ENV 772a/Law 20441 () / 2024-2025

Indigenous Self-Government in the U.S. Constitutional Order (Follows Law Calendar)

Credits: 2 Fall 2024: Th, 4:10-6:00, SLB 109

Follows Law school calendar

Native people in the United States have been building institutions of self-governance in the face of enormous colonial pressure for centuries. This course will consider the unique legal positions of Native American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian citizens in the United States as well as the residents of the U.S. territories. The course would introduce students to contemporary legal debates and social movements in the U.S. territories, Indian Country, and Hawaii and explore how overseas expansionism and relations with Indigenous peoples have shaped U.S. constitutional theory and doctrine. This course will demonstrate how the constitutional condition of the U.S. territories, Tribal nations, Alaska villages, and Hawai‘i occupy more than niche legal issues but  require us to think more broadly about borders, race, indigeneity, and citizenship in the U.S. We want to focus on the institutions of self-governance both to illustrate the continued resistance to colonial rule and to highlight the unique constitutional questions US colonial actions have posed from the very beginning.