Indigenous Sovereignty and the (Enlarged) Responsibility to Protect

Abstract

ABSTRACT Canada has sought to ground its international legal sovereignty of the Northwest Passage by reference to Inuit “long usage.” This article argues that such a successful claim would win for Canada not a Westphalian status of sovereign control but an Indigenous concept of sovereign responsibility. Such Indigenous sovereignty is not only “formal,” requiring inclusion of Inuit in the form of government, but also “substantive,” committing Canada to protection of the physical and cultural environment. This concept of domestic sovereignty as responsibility might also build on the emerging international norm of “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P) by extending its realm of protection as a condition of sovereignty. This concept of sovereignty as stewardship rather than control might help to head off a colonial scramble for territory in the Arctic.