Perversions of justice : indigenous peoples and Angloamerican law / by Ward Churchill.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Churchill, Ward.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Indians of North America--Legal status, laws, etc--History.

Indians of North America.

Indians of North America--Legal status, laws, etc.

History.

International law--United States--History.

International law.

Colonization.

North America--Colonization.

North America.

United States.

Physical Description:

xxii, 465 pages ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

San Francisco : City Lights, [2003]

Summary:

The United States is readily distinguishable from other countries, Chief Justice John Marshall opined in 1803, because it is a "nation of laws, not of men." In Perversions of Justice, Ward Churchill takes Marshall at his word, exploring how the U.S. has consistently employed a corrupt from of legalism as a means of establishing colonial control and empire. Along the way, he demonstrates how this "nation of laws" has so completely subverted the law of nations that the current America-dominated international order ends up, like the U.S. itself, functioning in a manner diametrically opposed to the ideals of freedom and democracy it professes to embrace. By tracing the evolution of federal Indian law, Churchill is able to show how the premises set forth therein not only spilled over onto non-Indians in the U.S., but were also adapted for application abroad -- the trajectory of America's imperial logic can be followed all the way to the present New World Order. Churchill provides a point-by-point indictment of America's behavior, and offers a view of how things might work if even the minimum requirements of international law were complied with.

Contents:

Foreword: "From Emily Dickinson and Sitting Bull on Dakota" / James Wm. Chichetto xi

Introduction: "The Creator Knows Their Lies and So Should We" Ward Churchill's Pursuit of Juridical Truth / Sharon Helen Venne xiii

Essays

Perversions of Justice: Examining U.S. Rights to Occupancy in North America 1

Rights of Conquest: The Devolution of a Myth in International Law 33

Stolen Kingdom: The Right of Hawai'i to Decolonization 73

Charades, Anyone? The Indian Claims Commission in Context 125

A Breach of Trust: The Radioactive Colonization of Native North America 153

The Crucible of American Indian Identity: Native Tradition versus Colonial Imposition in Postconquest North America 201

Forbidding the "G-Word": Holocaust Denial as Judicial Doctrine in Canada 247

The Bloody Wake of Alcatraz: Repression of the American Indian Movement During the 1970s 263

"To Judge Them by the Standards of Their Time": America's Indian Fighters, the Laws of War and the Question of International Order 303

A. United Nations Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples December 14, 1960 405

B. Congressional Apology to Native Hawaiians November 23, 1993 408

C. Draft United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples August 26, 1994 414

D. National Security Council Memorandum on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples January 18, 2001 427.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0872864162

0872864111

OCLC:

50124714