The Proposed Nordic Saami Convention National And International Dimensions Of Indigenous Property Rights

In 2005, an expert group representing the governments of Norway, Sweden, and Finland, as well as the Saami parliaments of these countries (Saami are the Nordic indigenous people), agreed upon a draft text of a Nordic Saami Convention. Key parts of the text deal with the recognition of Saami land and resource rights. More recently, the three governments have embarked on negotiations to move from this draft text to a final convention that can be adopted and ratified by all three countries. Negotiations commenced in the Spring of 2011 and should be completed within five years. Divided into four parts, this collection of essays explores the national and international dimensions of the Convention, which recognizes the Saami as one people divided by international boundaries. The first part of the book provides a global and theoretical context for these developments in the Nordic countries with a series of essays dealing with the moral and legal reasons for recognizing indigenous property interests and different conceptualizations of the relationship between indigenous peoples and settler societies, including recognition, reconciliation, and pluralism. Part two of the book examines some i