Aboriginal Law & Indigenous Laws

Like many indigenous legal institutions across North America, the Hopi Tribal Court was created in the image of Anglo-American-style law. But Richland shows that in recent years, Hopi jurists and litigants have called for their courts to develop a jurisprudence that better reflects Hopi culture and traditions. Providing unprecedented insights into the Hopi and English courtroom interactions through which this conflict plays out, Richland argues that tensions between the language of Anglo-style law and Hopi tradition both drive Hopi jurisprudence and make it unique.

This work follows the format of the Minnesota American Indian Bar Association's tribal courts directory and contains information from courts in 32 states. The authors added a well ordered index for ease of use and have created an invaluable reference source for researchers of Native American law.

Tribal Justice is a book that provides an in-depth review and survey of tribal appellate court jurisprudence. The particular topics covered include enrollment and disenrollment, civil rights, elections and political participation, criminal law and procedure, rights of juveniles, tribal constitutions, and tradition and custom. The book focuses on the procedure and substance of tribal court appellate decision making as revealed in the text of actual court opinions. The decisions and accompanying notes are further amplified by the development of a model of tribal court jurisprudence and a discussion of various theories of tribal court judging.