Aboriginal Title—Diagnosis and Prognosis

This chapter acknowledges the role of aboriginal title in jolting governments into a new politics of negotiating with tribes and taking stock of the courts' role in monitoring their relations with indigenous peoples. It also notes, however, the conservative effects of rights-design within a proprietary paradigm and the downstream lawfare that has since engulfed tribes' affairs. It attempts a critical assessment of what the doctrine has — and has not — achieved for indigenous peoples.

This chapter acknowledges the role of aboriginal title in jolting governments into a new politics of negotiating with tribes and taking stock of the courts' role in monitoring their relations with indigenous peoples. It also notes, however, the conservative effects of rights-design within a proprietary paradigm and the downstream lawfare that has since engulfed tribes' affairs. It attempts a critical assessment of what the doctrine has — and has not — achieved for indigenous peoples.