Historic Treaty Research Articles

The two faces of Franco-Sudanian Treaties: The peripheral practice of ratification as evidence of transregional international law in the nineteenth century

Abstract Legal scholars continue to revisit historical treaties between Western and non-Western nations to challenge long-standing accounts of non-Western peoples’ engagement with international law. Following this trend, new scholarship has stressed African agency in Euro-African treaty-making. However, legal scholars have generally overlooked African perspectives, pointing to a lack of sources. Focusing on nineteenth-century treaty-making between France and the polities of the Western Sudan in West Africa, this article excavates African perspectives through a novel reading of Euro-African treaties in an African context. This reading analyses treaties within the Western Sudan’s broader diplomatic corpus in both French and Arabic. By focusing on markers of translation, transcription, and negotiation left on different copies of treaties, this method brings to light arguments and practices that have been obscured in published European-language versions. Reading Franco-Sudanian treaties in a Sudanian context reveals that different norms governed the ratification of treaties in the Western Sudan and Europe. Treaties that scholars have long considered unratified were in fact ratified according to Western Sudanian norms, which designated the governor of French Senegal rather than the French president as the official competent to ratify treaties for France. However, when French officials sought to use treaties to claim sovereign rights in West Africa against Great Britain, they pressed the president to ratify them again. Presidential ratification thus served to transpose Franco-Sudanian treaties from an African to a Western normative order. Uncovering the African origins of Euro-African treaties thus reveals their differential operation across autonomous inter-polity orders.

Transforming settler nationalism in Québec: Recovering the principles of the historical treaties

AbstractThe settler nature of Québécois society makes it a distinct case of minority nationalism. Québec's claim of self‐determination is necessarily more complex and intricately woven with parallel claims from the Indigenous peoples of the territory. This paper argues, first, that Québécois society holds significant obligations toward Indigenous peoples reflected in the commitments made in the historical French treaties and second, that the normative principles embedded in those treaties should be used to transform the relationships it holds with Indigenous peoples and Québec's nationalist project itself. Overall, the paper suggests that Québécois nationalism needs to move away from settler colonialism by considering more seriously the shared nature of the territory it purports to have sovereignty over and by upholding the principles that allowed settlers to stay on the land.

Revisiting to Gorkha Invasion in Uttarakhand : Causes and Consequences ( 1790 A.D. – 1816 A.D.)

Bharat – Nepal immemorial and dateless association nurtures in the lap of antique culture, tradition and religion cultivating a past of ancient treasures. It was the age of 18th century which witnessed the anarchical regime of the Gorkha rule on the soil of Uttarakhand. The paradise of Central Himalayas bellowed in the tyranny of the Gorkha dynasty which was put to an end by the historical Treaty of Sigauli in 1816 A.D. The present age of the 21st history reflects the significant diplomatic relation between Bharat and Nepal based on the engine of trade and commerce running on the wheels of shared culture and tradition forming a portion of history for the future readers.

Reconsidering Treaty 8 Negotiations: The Canadian Government’s Purposeful Exploitation of a Disadvantaged Population

Treaty 8 was signed on June 21, 1899, between the Government of Canada and Indigenous Peoples living in the northern Alberta, northeastern British Columbia, southwestern Northwest Territories, and northwestern Saskatchewan region. Calls for the treaty began in the 1870s, but negotiations only began one day before the treaty was signed, raising questions about the fairness and professionalism of the negotiation process.1 Issues involving the mistreatment of Indigenous Peoples, both historically and contemporarily, have been on the front pages of media increasingly since the discovery of unmarked graves at a Kamloops formerresidential school in 2021. Each case of the Canadian government’s mistreatment of Indigenous Peoples, or enabling of it, is different and needs to be examined individually with consideration of the different sources relevant to each event or case. This research sought to uncover if injustice or mistreatment of Indigenous groups occurred during the Treaty 8 negotiations, and if so, how. The research reveals that the government took advantage of the poor economic conditions affecting Indigenous Peoples in Northern Alberta and created Treaty 8 to unfairly benefit itself on the premise that Indigenous Peoples are less worthy of respect from the government. Negotiations were unfair and Indigenous Peoples were mocked and exploited, calling into question the ethics of Treaty 8 and the need to not only reconcile, but to completely re-examine Treaty 8 and other historical treaties and laws concerning Indigenous groups.

The Dispute Over The Nile River Involving The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam

This study examines the complex conflict over the Nile River, focusing on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) and its implications for regional socio-economic development. The research adopts a systems perspective to analyze the dynamics between Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia. It highlights the challenges of water management in the Nile River Basin, shared by eleven African countries, and delves into the geopolitical, environmental, and socio-economic factors at play. The research team, composed of Latin American scholars, acknowledges their outsider perspective and strives to incorporate a wide range of views. The findings discuss the historical treaties, current negotiations, and the importance of a balanced agreement that considers the interests of all parties, the threat of climate change, and sustainable water management practices. The study concludes with insights that could inform similar disputes in other transboundary river basins and underscores the urgency for cooperative solutions to prevent humanitarian crises. Keywords: Nile River, GERD, Causal Loops, System Perspective

Historical and Physicochemical Analysis of the Clinker Bricks in the Smart Memorial Gymnasium of the Tiancizhuang Campus at Soochow University, China

Clinker bricks were popular as a facade material in the United States between the 1890s and the 1930s. However, this material was unknown to Chinese builders and was seldom found in Chinese modern architecture from 1840 to 1949. The Smart Memorial Gymnasium built in the years 1934–1937 in the Tiancizhuang Campus of Soochow University (Suzhou, China) is one of the rare examples of a building featuring clinker bricks in modern China. Notably, those clinker bricks were not imported but locally manufactured. Despite the heritage significance of the Smart Memorial Gymnasium as part of a major historical and cultural site protected at the national level in China, the history and characteristics of those historical bricks have remained virtually unexplored. This study first provides a historical analysis of those bricks, giving insights into the general knowledge of this construction material around that time based on British and American historical sources from the 19th and 20th centuries, with a focus on historical treaties and documents. This analysis sheds light on the raw materials mixtures of clinker bricks, their manufacturing processes, and their architectural applications at the time. Moreover, this study presents a physicochemical analysis of the clinker bricks employed at Soochow University, focusing on the correlation between historical studies and physicochemical characteristics, as well as the materials’ characteristics that respond to the natural environment. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), and total immersion tests were employed to investigate the physicochemical properties of the bricks at various locations of the Smart Memorial Gymnasium facades. Our findings deepen the knowledge and understanding of clinker bricks transferred from the West to China in the early 20th century. Additionally, our results reveal the chemical composition and physical characteristics of different types of clinker bricks used in the Smart Memorial Gymnasium, outlining practical implications and future research directions. Overall, this study lays a foundation for the heritage recognition and conservation of Chinese clinker bricks.

Renewing Nagasaki’s Citizen Diplomacy

ABSTRACT For three quarters of a century, the hibakusha (survivors of the atomic bombing in Hiroshima and Nagasaki) have stood firm in their quest to save humanity from nuclear annihilation. Through their voice and action, the people of Nagasaki City have demonstrated the strength of citizen diplomacy. The voice of Nagasaki can be heard everywhere – strong in its call that Nagasaki must remain the last place to suffer an atomic bombing. Most significantly, the hibakusha’s compelling testimonies brought the world the historic Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) in 2017. Despite this prohibition, the goal of a nuclear free world seems more elusive than ever, and the nuclear sceptre looms large. Today, the world faces a heightened risk of nuclear weapons use amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. What should we do in this time of danger and opportunity? In commemoration of the 10th anniversary of its founding, the Research Center for Nuclear Weapons Abolition, Nagasaki University and the Nagasaki Council for Nuclear Weapons Abolition organised a special public lecture on 29th October 2022, to examine current challenges in the path toward a nuclear weapons-free world and to re-evaluate the roles that the A-Bombed city should play in advancing this goal. This article, adapted from the public lecture, reaffirms the vital role that Nagasaki must continue to play through a renewal of its citizen diplomacy. It highlights lessons from the TPNW negotiations and the opportunities that its adoption has created for Nagasaki to strengthen and expand its citizen diplomacy.

Institutional Drift, Property Rights, and Economic Development: Evidence from Historical Treaties

Institutional Drift, Property Rights, and Economic Development: Evidence from Historical Treaties

‘Egmont, Who Was He?’

As part of Aotearoa New Zealand’s process of settling historical Treaty of Waitangi claims, a settlement is expected to be completed soon in relation to the maunga (mountain) known to Māori as Taranaki. In addition to recognising the maunga as a legal person, the settlement will reportedly make Taranaki Maunga the landmark’s sole official name. More than 250 years after Captain Cook imposed the name Mount Egmont on the landscape, that name will finally disappear from the map. Few people today are likely to mourn the loss of this name, but things were very different 35 years ago. In 1986, ‘Mount Taranaki or Mount Egmont’ was recognised as the official name of the maunga. The path to that compromise, in which Māori and European names sat side by side, was bitterly contested by many Pākehā (New Zealanders of European descent) who feared the removal of a name they saw as tied to their sense of identity. For Taranaki Māori, who had patiently campaigned for restoration of the Māori name, the decision was another step towards recognition of their deep connections with their sacred maunga. This article provides an account of the debate over the name of the maunga that took place in 1985-86 and looks at how identity, history, race relations and democracy were discussed in the debate. It also reflects on the reasons why there was such intense contestation over the name, and the debate’s relevance to the new Aotearoa New Zealand histories curriculum.

Occupying Space: Land art and the Red Power Movement, c. 1965-78

Scholars of Land art have long acknowledged the influence of pre-Columbian Indigenous art on earthworks made in the United States during the 1960s and 1970s, identifying this appropriation as an extension of modernism's preoccupation with "primitivism". Less attention has been paid to the temporal and ideological parallels between Land art and the Red Power movement - a historic moment in Indigenous American rights activism that comprised a series of highly publicised protests and land occupations at sites like Alcatraz Island, Wounded Knee, and Mount Rushmore. As this wave of activism intensified and brought issues of land ownership and the legacy of settler colonialism to the forefront of the American public's concerns, a number of non-Native artists began working with land as their primary material. By situating a selection of works by artists Michael Heizer and Dennis Oppenheim within the historical framework of Red Power - including media representations of activists and countercultural appropriations of Indigenous American traditions - another social lens emerges through which to interpret these iconic works of Land art. The issues of displacement, territorial borders, and trespassing that emerge in Heizer's and Oppenheim's works take on new meaning when considered in relation to Red Power activists' interrogation of broken historic treaties and demands for the return of stolen lands.

Land Is Life: Indigenous Relationships to Territory and Navigating Settler Colonial Property Regimes in Canada

Respectful and reciprocal relationships with land are at the heart of many Indigenous cultures and societies. Land is also at the core of settler colonialism. Indigenous peoples have not only been dispossessed of land for settler occupation and resource extraction, but the transformation of land into property has created myriad challenges to ongoing struggles of land repatriation and renewal. We introduce several perspectives on land rooted in diverse Indigenous worldviews and contrast them with settler colonial perspectives rooted in Eurocentric worldviews. We then examine several examples in Canada where Indigenous nations attempt to reconnect with their homelands, protect them, and/or engage with them for economic development. We look at land relationships rooted in historical treaties, contemporary comprehensive claims/self-government agreements, the Indian Act, and the defence of unceded territories. The Indigenous communities we look at include the Six Nations of the Grand River, the Nisga’a Lisims Government, the Westbank First Nation, and the Wet’suwet’en. We contend that a complex configuration of settler colonial institutions challenges long-term efforts for Indigenous land reclamation, protection, and sustainable development, however, Indigenous nations remain steadfast in asserting their self-determination in diverse relational ways inside and outside of settler state systems.

Invoking International Environmental Norms Through Treaty Interpretation

Abstract This article analyses the way in which international tribunals considering treaty- based disputes incorporate extraneous environmental principles through the use of interpretative mechanisms. Increasingly prominent in the international sphere, this approach allows States bringing claims under historical treaties to adopt and enforce contemporary understandings of environmental obligations. This article pursues an extensive survey of cases exhibiting this process, focusing on the interpretative techniques used; the extent to which the tribunals allowed for environmental arguments; and the basis, and use, of environmental norms. These results facilitate a comparative analysis, which concludes that tribunals’ choices regarding each of these features ultimately depends on the underlying treaty’s relationship with intertemporal law. This article thus provides a guide as to how States may effectively enforce environmental obligations, even absent explicit environmental enforcement mechanisms.

Kia Whakatōmuri Haere Whakamua: Implementing Tikanga Māori as the Jurisdictional Framework for Overlapping Claims Disputes

This article addresses the misconception that overlapping rights to land are always in tension with one another. In this article, I apply a tikanga-based analysis to the policy on overlapping rights that is used in the settlement of historical Treaty of Waitangi claims. I argue that the supremacy of colonial law within the State legal system continues to suppress indigenous relationality and limit the mechanisms for reciprocity. This article problematises the following claims made about overlapping claims disputes. First, that overlapping rights are too complex for judicial resolution. This article examines the ways in which overlapping rights are capable of co-existing to preserve relationships between different iwi and hapū. Second, that tikanga is a contestable system of law and should not be regarded as a question of law or as a jurisdictional framework for resolving such disputes. This article critically analyses the extent to which these claims are based on the supremacy of colonial law within the State legal system by considering the application of tikanga in the courts and alternative dispute resolution processes. I argue that tikanga Māori is the only applicable framework whereby differences can be mediated in a way that preserves the relationships between the parties and provides redress mechanisms for continuing reciprocity. This article concludes that the State legal system at present continues to delegitimise indigenous relationality in ways that amalgamate rights into a colonial recognition framework, which fails to recognise tikanga Māori as an equal system of law in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Haiti and the American Military Occupation (1915–1934) by Raoul B. Altidor, and: American Imperialism's Undead: The Occupation of Haiti and the Rise of Caribbean Anticolonialism by Raphael Dalleo

Reviewed by: Haiti and the American Military Occupation (1915–1934) by Raoul B. Altidor, and: American Imperialism's Undead: The Occupation of Haiti and the Rise of Caribbean Anticolonialism by Raphael Dalleo Celucien L. Joseph Haiti and the American Military Occupation (1915–1934). By Raoul B. Altidor. Montreal: CIDIHCA, 2019. ISBN 1643820710. 182 pp. $45.50 paper. American Imperialism's Undead: The Occupation of Haiti and the Rise of Caribbean Anticolonialism. By Raphael Dalleo. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2016. ISBN 0813938945. 256 pp. $75 hardcover, $35 paper. On July 28, 1915, the United States invaded Haiti, beginning nineteen years of occupation through military forces and imperial actions. By the time the military presence and operations of the Occupation ended on August 1, 1934, US imperialism had radically transformed Haiti's civil and political society and reshaped contemporary Haitian-US foreign policies as well as political discourses between Haiti and other countries in the Western Hemisphere. The causes of the historic invasion are numerous and varied, including Haiti's failed governments and political instability prior to the invasion, and US economic interests and imperial expansion. While studies and investigations on the Occupation in Haiti are substantial, other pivotal aspects of US imperialism in the Caribbean as accounted for in the US State Department and Haitian archives have yet to be explored. Although the Occupation reverberated in Caribbean and African diaspora writings, especially in the mid-twentieth century, many stories remain untold. Important new texts by Raoul B. Altidor and Raphael Dalleo intend to shed light on the workings and effects of the Occupation and US imperialism, covering the first half of the twentieth century. While Altidor offers a journalistic perspective, Dalleo's analysis is academic and literary. Altidor's book, Haiti and the American Military Occupation, recounts the history and tragedy of the US military intervention on Haitian soil. The book is divided into ten short chapters (four to ten pages each) and eight [End Page 201] helpful appendices that include important archival documents. Overall, Altidor offers an engaging analysis of existing literature on the US Occupation, and the value of his book lies in its engaging journalistic point of view. For those interested in a rich bibliography of the classic and major texts and documents covering the US Occupation in Haiti, Altidor's book is recommended. Altidor carefully assesses an enormous body of work, drawing out the Occupation's historical causes and impacts on Haitian society and establishing connections among themes of class, race, and white supremacy as they shaped US policies in Haiti. As Altidor describes, the book aims to explain "the environment and consequences of the occupation of Haiti from 1915–1934" (15). In keeping with its journalistic character, the book is built on previous research about the Occupation, and as such it reports what transpired during the period. While the author painstakingly reports key figures and events, he does not cover any new material. Chapter 1 briefly examines the well-known causes of the July 1915 intervention. While the author subscribes to the idea that the reasons for the Occupation included political instability and short-lived administrations in Haiti, he also argues that the United States was interested in expanding its hegemony in this region in the Caribbean (21). Chapter 2 offers a succinct commentary on the historic treaty of 1915 between Haiti and the United States. The document itself is found in appendix E: "The Haitian American Treaty of 1915" (137–144). According to the author's reading of Articles X and XI, this important document clearly establishes the United States' "lasting economic hegemony in Haiti … as the dominant motivating factor for the occupation" (33–34). While the thesis of the chapter is not well developed, the author proposes that the economic and military dimensions of the Occupation eventually led to popular resistance against the occupying forces, including the emergence of the Cacos—guerilla warriors led by Charlemagne Masséna Péralte until he was shot by the US marines, who then circulated a photo of his body in Port-au-Prince. Chapter 3 summarizes the lasting impact of the military presence and operations in Haiti. Such intervention generated radical violence and racist paternalism within...

Addressing the Challenge of Overlapping Claims in Implementing the Vancouver Island (Douglas) Treaties

Indigenous social and legal orders are a source for addressing the challenge of overlapping claims in exercising historic treaty rights in the territories of neighbouring non-treaty Indigenous Peoples. The Vancouver Island Treaties (also known as the Douglas Treaties) of the 1850s made commitments that signatory communities could continue to hunt on unoccupied lands and carry on their fisheries as formerly. Today, as urban, agricultural and industrial forestry have constrained where people can exercise their treaty rights locally, individuals from these nations exercise harvesting rights in “extended territories” of their neighbours. Through detailing several court cases where these treaty rights were challenged by the Crown and the texts of modern-day treaty documents, I show how Coast Salish people continue to draw on local values and legal principles to articulate their distinctive vision of territory and community, both engaging and subverting divisive “overlapping claims” discourses. Not only First Nations but the state, through the judiciary, Crown counsel and land claims negotiators, also, at times, acknowledge and recognise the principles of kin and land tenure that are the foundation for addressing the challenges of overlapping claims.

Modern Treaty Making and the Limits of the Law

In recent years, several Australian states have formally committed to treaty negotiations with the First Peoples whose traditional lands they claim. The emerging treaty processes in Australia build on both the comprehensive land claim agreements currently under negotiation in Canada, as well as the historic treaties struck between First Peoples and colonial powers in North America and Aotearoa New Zealand. Parties engaged in these negotiations appropriately view treaties as mechanisms through which First Peoples and non-Indigenous political communities can settle ongoing tensions surrounding political autonomy, citizenship, and pluralism. However, it is not clear whether these processes can produce such outcomes. In this paper, we contend that although fairer processes of negotiation may avoid some of the problems of historic treaties, modern treaty making in Canada, Australia, and elsewhere, will fail to meet the parties’ aspirations unless greater attention is paid to building relational characteristics. We do so by outlining the promises and perils in modern treaty making with an eye towards understanding the limits of the law.

Creative Sovereignties and Fiscal Relations

Abstract This article contributes to conversations about creative sovereignties by exploring what truly ‘nation-to-nation’ fiscal relationships might look like between Canada and Treaty 6 First Nations if Treaty 6 were taken seriously. Since fiscal relations between Indigenous peoples and settler colonial states often perpetuate colonial sovereignty, reimagining fiscal relations in a historical treaty context offers creative opportunities for decolonization. The article first examines the history of the 1876 Treaty 6 and the relationships Treaty 6 created. It is established that Treaty 6 created nation-to-nation relationships that were based on the desire for mutually beneficial relations in a shared space, and that treaty included fiscal obligations for Canada. Since 1876, including today, fiscal relations between Canada and First Nations have generally been inconsistent with the spirit and intent of treaty. The article proceeds to offer examples of changes that could be made to create fiscal relationships consistent with treaty. Some of these recommendations are relatively pragmatic and would come at little political, fiscal, or constitutional cost to Canada, while others are more dramatic, and would involve a fundamental reshaping of Canada as we know it.

Modern treaty making and the limits of the law

In recent years, several Australian states have formally committed to treaty negotiations with the First Peoples whose traditional lands they claim. The emerging treaty processes in Australia build on both the comprehensive land claim agreements currently under negotiation in Canada as well as the historic treaties struck between First Peoples and colonial powers in North America and Aotearoa / New Zealand. Parties engaged in these negotiations appropriately view treaties as mechanisms through which First Peoples and non-Indigenous political communities can settle ongoing tensions surrounding political autonomy, citizenship, and pluralism. However, it is not clear whether these processes can produce such outcomes. In this article, we contend that, although fairer processes of negotiation may avoid some of the problems of historic treaties, modern treaty making in Canada, Australia, and elsewhere will fail to meet the parties’ aspirations unless greater attention is paid to building relational characteristics. We do so by outlining the promises and perils in modern treaty making with an eye toward understanding the limits of the law.

Cross-Canada Infrastructure Corridor, the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and 'Meaningful Consultation'

Perceived constraints on getting Canadian commodities to global markets have generated renewed interest in a cross-country infrastructure corridor, a concept that was initially conceived several decades ago. Consideration of the corridor concept exists in a broader context of fast-evolving jurisprudence in relation to the rights of Indigenous peoples in Canada. The Canadian legal landscape pertaining to those rights has evolved significantly in the years since the northern corridor concept was conceived, particularly with respect to Crown consultation obligations. Crown obligations in relation to the proposed corridor would be significant with respect to the rights and interests of Indigenous peoples. A cross-Canada corridor would, by its linear nature, directly and indirectly affect many diverse Indigenous communities that are situated in non-treaty, modern treaty and historical treaty contexts across the country. For example, the assessment and approval process for the Northern Gateway project involved more than 80 Indigenous communities and territories in Alberta and British Columbia, and the now-cancelled Energy East project would have crossed the traditional territory of 180 Indigenous communities on its route from Alberta to the Maritimes. Similarly, the review and approval process for the Trans Mountain Expansion project (TMX) involved at least 120 Indigenous communities along its route from the Edmonton area to Vancouver. In today’s legal context, the Crown (i.e., federal or provincial governments, or both) must consult, and in some situations accommodate, Indigenous communities in situations where the Crown has actual or constructive knowledge of the existence or potential existence of Aboriginal rights or title and contemplates conduct that might adversely affect those rights or title, such as approval of major infrastructure projects. Pursuit of the corridor project, to the extent that it involves Crown action that may adversely affect established or asserted Aboriginal rights or title, would trigger the Crown’s duty to consult, as would review and approval of specific infrastructure projects that may eventually fall within the corridor.

The Right Relationship: Reimagining the Implementation of Historical Treaties by John Burrows and Michael Coyle

<i>The Right Relationship: Reimagining the Implementation of Historical Treaties</i> by John Burrows and Michael Coyle