Dr. Donatas Murauskas (VU Law Faculty) and Prof. Grant Christensen (Stetson University College of Law) covered the legal issues faced by the indigenous communities in the USA and matters related to their tribal sovereignty during the discussion “Civil rights for native Americans”, which was held online on April 24th.
In the first part of the discussion, Prof. Grant Christensen explained why American indigenous people face issues different from other ethnic communities living in the country. While African Americans, Asians and Spanish American communities are protected under racial discrimination laws, the indigenous people are seen as sovereign entities by law with their own legal system and governments. The professor talked about the main legal differences between other ethnic minority communities and the indigenous ones.
G. Christensen explained, that as a sovereign community, Native Americans have never joined the national constitution and therefore have their own rights and laws. Most of these differences are based on cultural traditions and religious beliefs displayed by different indigenous communities.
Professor also covered the flaws in the American Constitution, composed many years ago, which knowingly excused Native Americans as equal citizens, making them unable to be represented in courts and barred them of legal rights.
The main dilemma: should we put liberal values or tribal sovereignty first when making legal decisions? Should we prioritize gender equality rights, or should we favor indigenous tribal practices, even though they clash with our Western ideals?
Can someone be allowed to not have a national security number or even a legal name due to religious beliefs? Prof. Grant Christensen told a peculiar story of an indigenous family, who fought for their religious rights not to give their child a legal name.
Towards the end of the discussion, LL.M students asked questions regarding the fore-mentioned cases of American indigenous people, including about the application of international human rights standards in the United States, the difficulty of developing application of fundamental rights standards within the indigenous people communities, that were answered by Prof. Grant Christensen.
This event was a part of the course “Protection of Human Rights in Practice”.
The recording of the discussion can be watched on the YouTube page of the VU Law faculty.