News
Coming soon
We'd like to publish discussion on Legal pluralism in the Journal Ethnographic Review (2005, #5). Our plan is to publish some small papers after Novikova's article about principles of customary law of indigenous peoples of the north of Russia. English version (MS Word document) was published in the Journal of Legal Pluralism. We ask to answer one question - Can the principles of customary law be acknowledged by the state and integrated into the state legal system? We received many interesting papers.
Special Section of the Issue: Common Law Today (guest editor: N.I. Novikova)
This issue's special section is a discussion of common law principles among native peoples of the North. The discussion is focused upon the question, raised in the lead article by N.I. Novikova, of understanding common law principles as an instrument ensuring the interaction between the state law and common law systems. The participants of the discussion explore various possibilities of studying, interpreting, and conveying common-law aspects of different cultures in the modern legal language. Among the contributors are scholars and specialists from Russia (O.I. Brusina, A.A. Dorskaia, F.G. Kamkia, N.I. Novikova, P.N. Pavlov, M.V. Puchkova, L.G. Svechnikova, I.L. Chestnov, I.A. Shirmanov), Canada (G. Fondahl), and Norway (T. Svensson, T. Thuen), who work in various areas of anthropology, culture, and law. The complexity of discussed issues is reflected in a wide range of approaches suggested and opinions expressed.
IV International Summer School on Legal Anthropology "Participatory democracy" August 2005
The organizers of the school are Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of Russian Academy of Sciences, Surgutsk Pedagogic University and Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North (RAIPON). The lecturers are the leading lawyers and anthropologists of Russia and foreign countries engaged in the problems of legal status of indigenous peoples. The audience includes last-year students, post-graduates, young teachers and researchers, as well as managerial employees of the Northern regions and activists of social organizations.
The International summer school of 2005 will be devoted to the questions of representation in legislative bodies, administration and self-government, in ecological and ethnological assessments' procedures and in court. Special attention will be paid to the customary law of indigenous peoples of the North and to the interaction of positive and customary law in defense of constitutional laws of indigenous peoples of the North. Part of the students will participate in the studies which is supposed to take place at the camp.
As the result of the school, a volume of materials will be published in Russian with a summary in English.
New CD in Legal Anthropology
"The Norm, the Custom and the Law", M., 2004
The CD contains the round table materials and a book on the Third Summer School in Legal Anthropology "Reindeer is Always Right. Studies in Legal Anthropology". Moscow: 2003
The round table discussion "The Norm, the Custom and the Law: Legislation and Practice" took place at 17 of February. It was participated by experts from the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, the Institute of the State and the Law, the Institute of Oriental Studies, Moscow State University, the Branch of the South Uralian State University, Nizhnevartovsk, Institute of the Peoples of the North of the State Pedagogical University by Hertsen, Tula State Pedagogical University, the Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North and the Far East of the Russian Federation.
The Program of the Round Table
New book in Legal Anthropology
The Reindeer is Always Right. Studies in Legal Anthropology. 2003. Ed. by N. I. Novikova. Moscow: Publishing House "Strategiya". 319 pages.
The book of articles was prepared on the basis of lectures read at the Third International Summer School in Legal Anthropology (August, 19-24, 2003, St. Petersburg-Pushkin ). The school was devoted to the conservation and the use of natural resources and the rights of indigenous peoples to reindeer herding as their subsistence base in the modern world.
The lecturers regarded these issues in the aspect of both international law and national legal systems of Russia and Norway. The major importance of summer schools is connected with the study of indigenous rights in the wider context of human rights and legal pluralism, with special attention paid to the opportunities which traditions and norms of indigenous peoples provide during their defense, including court defense, and with the rights to traditional nature management (land use). The book includes articles written both by the lecturers and by the School students themselves and summaries of papers in English.
The book may be interesting for decision makers, lawyers, ethnologists, historians and activists of national and cultural movements.
Summaries of papers in English