Indigenous Peoples and the History of Land Rights

Kaius Tuori, Network for European Studies, has published The Theory and Practice of Indigenous Dispossession in the Late Nineteenth Century: The Saami in the Far North of Europe and the Legal History of Colonialism as Helsinki Legal Studies Research Paper No. 34. Here is the abstract.

The dispossession of indigenous peoples is one of the central issues of the postcolonial world. The purpose of this article is to explore the Saami dispossession in the nineteenth century in the far North of Europe through a comparative approach. By comparing the theory and practice of the Saami dispossession with examples from Oceania, North America and Africa, the article analyses the role of legal and anthropological doctrines in the process of dispossession. Linking the history of colonialism with the idea of progress inherent in Western historical thought, it follows the complex convergence and transfer of ideas of property and indigenous rights that still influence debates on indigenous land rights.

Download the paper from SSRN at the link.