The Aboriginal concept of Nature’s Law differs from the
western concept of natural law understood within the western
legal tradition and the tradition of the French
philosophes.
In the West, natural law is usually
associated, first, with the rhythms and patterns that
scientists have seen in nature and, then, with local codes
and legal understandings that were applied in regional
European communities. Thus, natural law is held to grow out
of the regular patterns of everyday life known and accepted
by everyone in the community.
Aboriginal notions of Nature’s Law have
a much different focus and encompass all of this and more
including:
-
All of
the elements that we would associate with genealogical
relationships
-
Ancestral spirits
-
The
workings of the cosmos
-
The
moral laws expressed in right living
-
The
succession of growing things in nature
-
The
range of senses and sensory perception
-
The
relationships between human beings and plants and animals
and, finally,
-
The
interconnectedness across time, generations, natural
processes and culture.
In other words, Nature’s Law relates to
the principle of integration within society, culture and
cosmos. Thus, it can be seen that Nature's Law enlarges the
meaning of the western concept of natural law within a
larger framework. In essence, everything becomes part of an
ecosystem and is not bounded by western views of what we see
or feel. Aboriginal attitudes towards the law are practical
and, unlike the western legal tradition, it is not based on
a hierarchical system of principles or customary practice.
Nature’s Law is, thus, very contextual and relates to tribal
social organization.
In this introductory section, we will attempt to sketch
out significant differences in the Indigenous understanding
of law. This clearing of the ground will demonstrate that,
while history does help in comprehending Indigenous law (in
this report we use the words "Indigenous" and "Indigenous"
more or less equivalently), for Indigenous peoples that law
was based upon certain intuitions about the cosmos, the
world, animals and humans that we can only designate by our
word "natural," despite its inadequacy. The social devotion
to this "nature" constituted the foundations for Indigenous
law.
The 10 categories of Nature's Laws developed by the
project team are explored as is the case for traditional
Indigenous justice within the laws of Canada.
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