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8 UC Irvine L. Rev. 207 (2018)
Individual Choice of Law for Indigenous People in Canada: Reconciling Legal Pluralism with Human Rights

handle is hein.journals/ucirvlre8 and id is 215 raw text is: Individual Choice of Law for Indigenous People in Canada: Reconciling Legal Pluralism with Human Rights? Ghislain Otis* In tro d u ctio n .....................................................................................................................2 0 7 I. Choice of Law as a Diffusionist Colonial Tool......................................................210 II. The Protection of Human Rights as a New Justification for Individual Choice ....................................................214 III. Indigenous Governance, Choice of Law, and Human Rights in Canada.......216 C o n clu sio n ........................................................................................................................2 2 5 INTRODUCTION When two or more legal systems occupy the same social space, individuals often find themselves at the intersection of a plurality of normative regimes among which they may be able to choose to regulate a given relationship or situation. If the interaction between the legal systems is formally organized in a way that recognizes a substantial degree of legal pluralism, the right of individuals to decide to which law they wish to submit-the law of sub-state groups or state law-may be recognized and, as a consequence, enforceable by competent state institutions. Individual choice, however, may occur even when it is not validated by the official law. For example, indigenous customary adoptions are still officially ignored in eight of the ten Canadian provinces.' Yet it has been found that a substantial * Ph.D., FRSC, Professor of Law, Canada Research Chair on Legal Diversity and Indigenous Peoples, University of Ottawa. This research was undertaken, in part, thanks to funding from the Canada Research Chairs Program. The author also wishes to thank the UC Irvine Law Review and Professor Janine Ubink for inviting him to a most stimulating symposium on legal pluralism held at UCI on August 26, 2017. This paper is a revised version of the draft presented at the symposium. 1. See Cindy L. Baldassi, The Legal Status of Aborginal Customary Adoption Across Canada: Comparisons, Contrasts, and Convergences, 39 U.B.C.L. REv. 63 (2006). For a collection of essays on customary adoption, see L'ADOPTION COUTUMIEtRE ET LES DI-FIS DU PLURALISME JURIDIQUE (Ghislain Otis ed., 2013). 207