Indigeneity: Before and Beyond the Law

by Kathleen Birrell

Overview

Examining contested notions of indigeneity, and the positioning of the Indigenous subject before and beyond the law, this book focuses upon the animation of indigeneities within textual imaginaries, both literary and juridical. Engaging the philosophy of Jacques Derrida and Walter Benjamin, as well as other continental philosophy and critical legal theory, the book uniquely addresses the troubled juxtaposition of law and justice in the context of Indigenous legal claims and literary expressions, discourses of rights and recognition, postcolonialism and resistance in settler nation states, and the mutually constitutive relation between law and literature. Ultimately, the book suggests no less than a literary revolution, and the reassertion of Indigenous Law.

To date, the oppressive specificity with which Indigenous peoples have been defined in international and domestic law has not been subject to the scrutiny undertaken in this book. As an interdisciplinary engagement with a variety of scholarly approaches, this book will appeal to a broad variety of legal and humanist scholars concerned with the intersections between Indigenous peoples and law, including those engaged in critical legal studies and legal philosophy, sociolegal studies, human rights and native title law.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781138793323
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	03/30/2016
Series:	Indigenous Peoples and the Law
Pages:	268
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Kathleen Birrell is based at Melbourne Law School, Australia.

Table of Contents

PART I: NARRATIVES

Introduction

The Question of Indigeneity

(Mis)recognising Indigeneity

The Legal Indigene

Performing Indigeneity

Unsettling Indigeneity

The Literary Indigene

A Strange Play

Puncturing the Horizon

Positioning

To Speak of the Other

Synopsis

PART II: INDIGENEITY

Introduction

An Imperial Orientation

Subjects of Empire

An Impossible Object

Return of the Native

The Proper Indigene

The Legal Archive

An Originary Indigeneity

An Essential Ghost

Indigeneity as Other

Desiring Indigeneity

Before the Law

PART III: LAW

Introduction

Juridical Violence

The Madness of the Decision

Justice as Law

An Idea of Justice

Legitimate Fictions

The Last Uncharted Continent

The Colonial Gaze

Origin and Content

Mythic Indigeneity

The Ancient Tribe

Law as Literature

PART IV: LITERATURE

Introduction

A Fictive Institution

The Postcolonial Project

Mimetic Indigeneities

Becoming Indigeneity

(Re)imagining Indigeneity

A Law of Alterity

A Subversive Juridicity

Recuperative Jurisprudences

Decolonising Country

Beyond the Law

To Conclude