abstract: In 2005, the Navajo Sovereignty in Education Act was signed into law by the Navajo Nation. Like the No Child Left Behind Act, this Navajo Nation legislation was as much a policy statement as it was a law. It marked the first time that the Navajo Nation linked sovereignty with education by expressing its intent to control all education within its exterior boundaries. The objective of the law was to create a department of education that would resemble the states of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah in which the Navajo Nation resides. Through their department of education, the Navajo Nation would operate the educational functions for its populace. This study looked at the implications and impact that perspectives of this law would have on public schools within Arizona from the perspective of five superintendents in Arizona public schools within the Navajo Nation were gained through open-ended interviews. It examined the legal, fiscal, and curricular issues through the prism of sovereignty. Through the process of interviews utilizing a set of guided questions in a semi-structured format, five superintendents in Arizona public schools within the Navajo Nation shared their perspectives. Analysis of the five interviews revealed curriculum, funding, jurisdictional, and fear or mistrust as problems the Navajo Nation will need to overcome if it is to begin full control of all aspects of education within its boundaries. There is a strong need for the Department of Dine' Education to educate public schools with regards to the Navajo Nation Sovereignty in Education Act of 2005. Administrators need more training in tribal governments. Like the constitution, the Navajo Sovereignty in Education Act will be interpreted differently by different people. But, without action, it will be ignored. Within the Act's pages are the hopes of the Navajo Nation and the dreams for our young Navajo students. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ed.D. Educational Administration and Supervision 2011

Colonialism is ongoing in Canada and continues to affect Indigenous-state relations in a number of political and social areas, including water governance. Few other studies link colonial and decolonizing concepts to Indigenous water governance including discussions of power as well as structural and political assumptions, which speak to systemic factors and barriers to increased Indigenous water sovereignty. The purpose of this study is to undertake an in-depth decolonial analysis of the dynamics occurring in a legal water management dispute between an Indigenous community and the Canadian state. More specifically, the goal of this investigation is to identify how ongoing colonial factors affect the Halalt First Nation’s sovereignty over their waters. To this end, the research question is: Using an Indigenous resurgence (IR) analysis, what does the Halalt First Nation v British Columbia (Minister of the Environment) (Halalt v BC) caselaw reveal about the state of Indigenous water sovereignty in Canada? I employ a case study methodology where I analyse the Environmental Assessment (EA) and legal court case of Halalt v BC. I seek to provide a decolonial perspective, so in this study I use an IR theoretical framework. I collect data through interviews with ten participants including three Band Council staff members involved in the Halalt v British Columbia EA and court case study. I analyse the findings using three Indigenous resurgence themes of transfer of power from the state to an Indigenous community, increased respect and use of Indigenous worldviews, and Indigenous self-determination in light of the primary data I collected via key informant interviews and case study participants. The data reveals that there was no evidence that Indigenous resurgence is taking place in the case study as per Halalt participants’ experience of the case study nor the other participants’ opinion of the case study. In this thesis, I advocate for decolonization in the form of increased Indigenous political authority for the Halalt and all Indigenous communities in Canada. / Graduate

The role of religion in shaping geopolitics and its associated norms is often overlooked by international relations scholars. This influence can be examined through the lives of transnational religious leaders (TRLs), particularly those who contribute to new definitions of state sovereignty through their involvement in regime change. Two seemingly incomparable figures center in this paper's case studies- Pope John Paul II and Abdullah Yusuf Azzam. Pope John Paul, through the roles of pastor to a transnational community and head of an international organization, lent international legitimacy to the Solidarity movement, which contributed to the fall of Communism in Poland. Abdullah Yusuf Azzam authored the theological concept of "defensive jihad", led the transnational Afghan Arabs in armed resistance against Soviet invasion in Afghanistan during the Soviet Afghan war, and contributed to the creation of a global jihadist movement. Traditionally, Westphalian sovereignty claims that the territorial state holds ultimate authority over the affairs within its borders and that it is the primary actor in the international system. This dissertation examines how the characteristics of a TRL and the characteristics of the associated transnational social movement (TSM) qualify regime change as an indicator of challenges to conceptions of Westphalian sovereignty and modern state sovereignty. Characteristics of TRL include leadership style, hard versus soft power, relationship to secularization, and relationship to modernity. Characteristics of TSM include political theology, mobilizing structures, political opportunity structures, and nature of transnational activism. In both case studies, a transnational leader used soft power, based in a transnational religious identity and civil society, to contribute to a transnational social movement that helped alter the domestic authority structures in Poland and Afghanistan. As individual actors determining the actions of nation states, these TRLs ultimately challenged state sovereignty. Pope John Paul II's theological worldview was compatible with the Westphalian system, and he contributed to the birth of a stable, democratic Poland with sovereign authority within internationally respected borders. Azzam, however, envisioned an alternate world order based on religiously defined, pre-Westphalian boundaries. His theological and pragmatic contributions to the Afghan Arabs and the modern day jihadist movement further challenged the Westphalian system. / 2017-01-01T00:00:00Z

abstract: In The Archive and the Repertoire, Diana Taylor discusses how performance, gestures, resistances within a community holds an embodied memory and enacts the transmission of knowledge within that community. Taylor discusses how this embodied memory is alternative to the written archive of history, history of interaction, history of meaning, history of language. Through the consideration of performance, Taylor urges her reader to reconsider oral and performative transmission of culture, knowledge, customs, traditions, and resistance. This project considers whether this reconsideration can be extended or expanded to oral and performative transmission of law within a community. Specifically, this research explores the conflict between the project of nationality and the reality of social organizing on a community/collective level. It asserts that this conflict is manifested most dramatically within border communities. The dissertation examines how the role of written law in the borderlands divides land and inhabitants and reconstructs a new understanding of the borderlands through oral histories and resistance by border communities. The overall goal of the dissertation is to challenge current scholarship to address the conceptual and sociopolitical task of a world in which legal representations and abstractions supersede the complex reality of community relations. As legal anthropologist Sally Falk Moore identified, we must consider carefully whether or not law controls the social context and what this means for our own definitions of community, what are the boundaries and borders of communities, and the seemingly limitedness of social interaction that becomes based on such legal definitions. The dissertation analyzes the defining disconnect of law from the social context that manifests itself amongst border communities along the U.S.-Mexico border. By exploring how law creates, sustains, molds, and connects the phenomenon of sovereignty, economy, and international borders, we can begin to understand how actions of border communities along the U.S.-Mexico border define the disconnect of law from the social context by redefining community itself. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Justice Studies 2012

[pt] Considerando que o direito tem sido mobilizado no processo de modernização brasileiro como instrumento de soberania do Estado, a tese discute as oportunidades emancipatórias abertas pelo constitucionalismo democrático da Carta de 1988. A ideia é demonstrar que a disputa pelo sentido da Constituição se transfigurou na própria pauta civilizatória, conduzida de maneira horizontal e plural pela cidadania através do acesso à Justiça. Este seria o sentido da judicialização da política. Todavia, nem sempre os Tribunais assumem o papel de mediador ou representante da soberania popular na sua luta por direitos constitucionalizados. Esse trabalho chama de ativismo judicial a postura imperial da Justiça no que diz respeito à sua capacidade de estabelecer uma agenda política de âmbito nacional, por se considerar o principal, senão o único, intérprete do compromisso constitucional. Sob essas condições, é possível perceber o retorno da ação demiúrgica da soberania monolítica do Estado, todavia, operacionalizada no âmbito da jurisdição constitucional. Essa pesquisa discute e critica as inflexões judicializantes e ativistas do Supremo Tribunal Federal. / [en] Considering that the Brazilian modernization process has been used the law as State s sovereignty instrument, this work discusses the emancipatory opportunities disclosed by the democratic constitutionalism of the 1988 Charter. The goal is to show that the dispute for the meaning of the Constitution ends up being its own civilizational agenda, steered horizontally and plurally by the citizenship through right s litigation. That would be the definition of the judicialization of politics. However, not always the Courts take over this role as the citizenship s mediator or representative. The research will call judicial activism the imperial attitude of the Justice regarding its own ability to establish a national political agenda, because it considers itself as the major if not the only interpreter of the constitutional commitment. Under these circumstances it is plausible to realize the return of the demiurgic action of the monolithic State s sovereignty, however, implemented by the judicial review. This work discusses both judicial and activist inflexions of Brazil s Supreme Court.

Ces trente dernières années témoignent de changements significatifs en terre indienne depuis l'arrivée des casinos amérindiens. Le travail présenté ici se concentre sur une tribu du Minnesota, la tribu des Ojibwe de Mille lacs, et étudie son évolution depuis 1991, date de l'ouverture de son premier casino. L'histoire du jeu indien aux États-Unis et la situation d'autres tribus du Minnesota sont aussi présentées afin de donner davantage de profondeur à l'argumentation qui démontre que le jeu indien a eu un impact conséquent non seulement sur les conditions de vie des tribus, mais aussi sur leur souveraineté et leur force. Les choix tribaux incluent le recrutement de lobbyistes et d'avocats efficaces qui promeuvent les droits tribaux à la fois au niveau législatif (au Congrès américain) et au niveau judiciaire maintenant que les tribus peuvent se défendre avec des moyens décuplés. Les taux de chômage et de pauvreté ont baissé sur de nombreuses réserves, et les tribus donnent la priorité à l'éducation, en construisant de nouvelles écoles, à la santé, avec de nouvelles cliniques, et à la préservation culturelle (stages de langue, musées, centres culturels). Malgré la menace d'assimilation que les casinos représentent, ils ont donné aux tribus les moyens d'être plus autonomes dans leurs choix et les ont aidées à redéfinir leur identité contemporaine. En trois décennies, les casinos ont créé une nouvelle image de l'Amérique indienne. / The past thirty years have seen significant changes taking place in Indian Country following the advent of Native American casinos. This work focuses on one Minnesota tribe, the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, and studies its evolution since 1991, when its first casino opened. The history of Indian gaming in the United States and the situation of other Minnesota tribes are also presented to give more depth to the argumentation which demonstrates that gaming has had a substantial impact not only on the living conditions of tribal people, but also on Native American sovereignty and strength. Tribal choices include the hiring of efficient lobbyists and lawyers to promote tribal rights bath on the U.S. legislative level (Congress) and on a judiciary one now that tribes can defend themselves through effective means. Unemployment and poverty levels have dropped on many reservations, and tribes give priority to education, through the building of new schools, health, with new clinics, and cultural preservation (language tables, museums, cultural centers). Despite the assimilative threat casinos represent, they have empowered tribes to be more autonomous in their choices and helped them redefine their contemporary identity. In three decades, gaming has created a new representation of Native America.

This dissertation examines two different perspectives on refugee status and state sovereignty respectively, and their bearings on refugee protection regimes. It reveals how dominant views of refugee status and state sovereignty have contributed to establishing restrictive refugee law and policy associated with various forms of external migration controls in the 21st century, and provides alternative views that may contribute to creating more “just” refugee protection regimes.   When refugees came to be regarded as those who fled from various push factors, such as persecution, distress and wars etc. (the persecution perspective), refugee policies were developed to provide “push factors-free” environments. These have not necessarily included surrogate political membership in the country of asylum (particularly, in developed countries).  Instead, developed countries have endorsed humanitarian assistance schemes that aim to provide aid to refugees in regions of their origin rather than providing settlement in their own territories. Moreover, in refugee law, the fear of “persecution”, as a push factor, has become a critical factor in determining refugee status. As a parallel, governments have developed various forms of deterrence policies based on a traditional concept of state sovereignty that allows states to implement migration polices at their own discretion.  Under these circumstances, refugees find it difficult to reach developed countries, and many of them end up being “contained” in refugee camps or other facilities in regions of their origin for a long time.   This dissertation calls into question these views of refugee status and state sovereignty, by providing alternative views: the protection perspective and an account of sovereignty that requires “responsible” border control. The protection perspective regards the ruptured protection relationship between a state and a citizen (thus, the lack of state protection) as the core element of refugee status. According to this view, refugee status is inextricably associated with systemic failure of the nation-states system (not merely with push factors) that is designed to secure political membership for each individual in the international state system. Therefore, as a matter of justice, the ultimate remedy for refugeehood is to provide surrogate political membership in the country of asylum or to restore original political membership in the home country. This project also proposes a concept of “responsible” border control, according to which, a state should exercise state sovereignty in relation to border control within institutional frameworks in which multiple authorities, including human rights norms, have been institutionalized. In this way, the dissertation aims to provide a more “just” framework in which to propose, adopt and implement refugee law and policy. From this alternative perspective, refugees are perceived as those who have right to political membership in the country of asylum rather than mere humanitarian assistance in refugee camps or somewhere else. / Graduate

Abstract: Northern rural Indigenous communities in Canada are facing many challenges getting regular access to nutritious foods, primarily due to the high cost of market food, restricted availability of nutritious foods, and lack of government support for nutritious food programs. The consequences of food insecurity in this context are expressed in high rates of diabetes, heart disease, and childhood obesity. Many Indigenous communities are responding to issues around healthy food access by attempting to rebuild local food capacity in their specific regions. Important first steps have been taken in developing local food initiatives, yet it remains to be seen what impact these initiatives are having on improving northern food security. This paper explores this question by working with a remote fly in community in the sub-arctic region Ontario to construct a hoop house and develop a school based community gardening program. By using a community-based participatory approach, it was determined that hoop house and gardening initiatives in rural, northern settings have the potential to build up local food production; can develop the skills and knowledge of community members; can engage and involve youth in growing local food; and do align with land-based food teachings. We show that despite widespread and multidimensional community hardships, there was considerable community buy-in and support to the project, giving hope for future development, and providing important insight for those seeking to initiate similar gardening, hoop house, or greenhouse initiatives in northern Indigenous communities. Abstract 2: Indigenous peoples of what is now known as Canada have experienced rapid lifestyle changes as a result of European contact. Indigenous food systems were systematically eroded by the Canadian government, leading to extremely high rates of food insecurity, and diet related disease. The complicated dynamics and interventions contributing to the erosion of local knowledges have forced a dependence on a market-based food system in remote and northern Indigenous communities in Canada. Communities are experiencing a double burden of the unaffordability or inaccessibility of traditional foods from the land, and the exorbitantly high cost and reduced availability of quality market foods largely due to the cost of shipping to these regions. The entanglement of local practices and global food systems is multifaceted and complex, thus the solution to food insecurity challenges are met with the burden of navigating both the local and the global. The purpose of this article is to analyze local meanings around food in a remote sub-Arctic First Nation in Ontario within the context of “coloniality” and global food systems. Drawing from the work of Walter Mignolo, and his concept of “border thinking”, this article explains the complex subsistence practices in the Canadian north and how they are located within a larger global framework. We show that by pinpointing potential “cracks” in the dominant Western epistemic as border thinking, a more useful understanding of food procurement strategies can come to light and offer new direction for culturally appropriate and sustainable food initiatives in the North.

The following comparative case study of Iraqi Kurdistan and Democratic Federation of Northern Syria-Rojava seeks to fill a gap in literature on the viability of democracy in cases of de facto statehood. There is yet to be an assessment of the potential influence of support from patron states on the degree to which democratization in de facto states is possible. This research expands upon on the argument that the decision to recognize de facto states is at least partially dependent upon the national interests of influential third party states. Syria Rojava has relied heavily on the strength of its internal sovereignty for survival where Iraqi Kurdistan received significant external support in vital phases of the state building process and was not reliant entirely on the strength of its internal unity. Where Kurdistan received essential major power support from permanent UN Security Council members early in the state-building process, as well as afterwards in constructing a divided system of governance, Syria Rojava has received little external support and faces an international community that denies its existence. It is estimated that in the following research the support of Major Powers early in the state-building process fundamentally changes the nature of internal sovereignty. More specifically the strength and weakness of conditions of internal sovereignty influence the type of governance that is practiced in the cases under analysis. Where the conditions of internal sovereignty are strong, the viability for democratization decreases; where the conditions of internal sovereignty are weak, the viability for democratization increases. In the case of Iraqi Kurdistan, the relatively weak conditions of internal sovereignty, while resulting in conditions that are more conducive to democratization, subjects the region to increased dependence on external powers for survival. Whereas in Syria Rojava, the relatively strong conditions of internal sovereignty while resulting in conditions that are less conducive to democratization, subjects the region to less dependence on external powers for survival. Theories that seek to affirm the possibility of democratization in de facto states have so far eschewed consideration of the military and diplomatic support of patron states in the early de facto state building process. There is a need for research that takes into consideration the specific events that lead to the creation of de facto states so as not to overlook the possibility that external actors play a role in shaping conditions of internal sovereignty.

O Movimento Internacional dos Direitos Humanos desafia o conceito clássico de soberania estatal. Em contrapartida, os argumentos em defesa da soberania representam um obstáculo aos movimentos de universalização e regionalização dos direitos humanos. Esta dissertação realiza uma análise qualitativa jurisprudencial, doutrinária e documental acerca do desenvolvimento dos mecanismos de defesa da soberania dos Estados no Sistema Interamericano de Direitos Humanos. O estudo indica que os mecanismos de defesa da soberania estatal têm sido utilizados pelo Sistema Interamericano de forma mais cautelosa da que tem sido observada no Sistema Europeu. Contudo, a imprecisão na aplicação dos requisitos de admissibilidade das petições internacionais representa um obstáculo ao movimento de regionalização dos direitos humanos no continente americano. / The International Human Rights Movement challenges the classic concept of state sovereignty. On the other hand, claims on sovereignty represent an obstacle to the universalisation and regionalisation of human rights. This dissertation undertakes a qualitative analysis on jurisprudence, literature and documents concerning the development of mechanisms to protect the sovereignty of states in the Inter-American System of Human Rights. The study indicates that the mechanisms of state sovereignty have been used by the Inter-American System in a more cautious fashion than by the European System. Nevertheless, the impreciseness in the application of admissibility requirements for international claims represents an obstacle to the regionalisation of human rights in the American continent.