John Borrows, "Indigenous Law & the More-than-Human World"

Join Western Law for the 2024 Coxford Lecture featuring Professor John Borrows, Loveland Chair in Indigenous Law at the University of Toronto. Professor Borrows' lecture will focus on Indigenous Law and the More-than-Human World.

Indigenous law partially flows from the land, and it is a vital resource for strengthening the rule of law more generally in Canada. While humans are a proximate and immediate source of Anishinaabe law, there are also broader forces influencing our legal agency.

This talk considers how the air, water, first, rocks, plants, insects, fish, birds, animals, and other more-than-human forces are key participants in Anishinaabe law. This talk will first consider Anishinaabe law’s more-than-human sources by discussing treaties in the early 1760s. Second, it examines how Anishinaabe creation and clan stories place more-than-humans at the heart of Anishinaabe constitutionalism. Third, it discusses how Anishinaabe law can be learned and practiced in ways which build systems and frameworks which could draw us closer to the more-than-human world. A consideration of the relevance of Canadian constitutionalism will conclude Professor Borrows' discussion.