On June 17, 18, 19, 2019, about 40 researchers from 8 different countries around the world met at the University of Ottawa. The subject: « The State and Indigenous Legal Cultures: Reform and Innovation in the Management of Legal Pluralism ». This ultimate team meeting of the Legitimus project : « The State and Indigenous Legal Cultures : Law in Search of Legitimacy », directed by Professor Ghislain Otis and financed by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, represents another step forward a peaceful relationship between the legal traditions.
Professor. Ghislain Otis will be receiving collaborators and partners for a final team meeting for the Legitimus project. The meeting “The State and Indigenous Legal Cultures: Reform and Innovation in the Management of Legal Pluralism” will be held at the University of Ottawa from June 17th to 19th, 2019. This team meeting is taking place as part of the Legitimus project “The State and Indigenous Legal Cultures: Law in Search of Legitimacy” directed by Professor Otis and financed bySocial Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Pauline Gervier, lecturer in public law at the Université de Bordeaux, CERCCLE and member of Legitimus, will host in Bordeaux, from 7 to 9 November 2018, several members of the Legitimus group including Ghislain Otis, holder of the Canada Research Chair in Legal Diversity and Indigenous Peoples.
Searchers and experts from the Legitimus project will be present during this event. Amongst the participants are Christiane Guay from the Université de Québec en Outaouais (UQO), Mylène Larivière from Makivik, Geneviève Motard from Laval University, Sylvie Poirier from Laval University, Pierrot Ross-Tremblay from Laurentienne University and Nadine Vollant from Uiuashitun and the director of the Legitimus project, Ghislain Otis, from the University of Ottawa.
The Forum was put in place to share results of research directed during the partnership between the Canada Research Chair in Legal Diversity and Indigenous Peoples and the Atikamekw Nation Council. The goal of this collaboration was to reinforce the Atikmekw nation's governance on matters of domestic violence and child protection.
To document the Atikamekw's knowledge and traditions, 118 interviews were conducted with participants and interveners of the three Atikamekw communities and the surrounding urban areas. These interviews are an essential key for searchers to understand and determine legal basis of the Atikamekw law.
Thus, the objective of this gathering is to share results and understandings on the matter and to situate the contribution of this research amongst the entirety of the research conducted on the judicial Atikamekw traditions in different areas of interest of the nation (family, child welfare, justice, territory).
The Canada Research Chair on Legal Diversity and Indigenous Nations and the Human Rights Research and Education Centre were pleased to partner with the Commission on Legal Pluralism and its partners in the organization of the conference that took place August 22-24, 2018 at the Faculty of Law of the University of Ottawa. The theme of the conference was ''Citizenship, Legal Pluralism and Governance in the Age of Globalization''.
Prior to the conference, the Commission organised an international course, covering theories, knowledge and methodologies of legal pluralism from August 17-20, 2018.
As the holder of the Canada Research Chair on Native Peoples and Legal Diversity, Mr. Ghislain Otis was an active participant at this event. On the first day of the conference, along with Janine Ubink, the President of the Commission on Legal pluralism, Céline Lévesques, Dean of the Civil Law faculty of the University of Ottawa and John Packer, director of the Human Rights Research and Education Centre, University of Ottawa, M. Otis opened the conference with a few words of welcome.
He was also the chair and discussant at the plenary panel 1: ''Indigenous Law and Legal Pluralism in Canada''. On the last day, during the panel 22: ''Indigenous Law and State Law in Canada: Is Cooperative Legal Pluralism Possible?'', Mr. Otis was the chair and also presented his talk “The Relationship between Indigenous Law and State Law in Canada: Overview of Current Trends”.
Needless to say that this conference was an extremely successful one for all the participants. The Canada Research Chair on Native Peoples and Legal Diversity was proud and delighted to have the researchers and the experts at its Faculty of Law in Ottawa.
