Original Nation Approaches to Inter-National Law

“A bold shot across the bow of orthodoxy where conceptions of world order are concerned, Original Nation Approaches to Inter-National Law is sure to stimulate reconsideration of a range of past assumptions regarding the legitimacy and even the viability of the prevailing statist system of global dominion. In offering clear alternatives, this book is not only timely but urgently needed.”

—Ward Churchill, author of Struggle for the Land (1993), On the Justice of Roosting Chickens (2003), and Kill the Indian, Save the Man (2004)

“A powerful manifesto for a true ‘Inter-National’ law against the hegemonic ‘international’ system of states and a resounding reminder that human emancipation cannot be separated from ecological justice.”

—Chulwoo Lee, Professor of Law, Yonsei Law School, Korea   

This book introduces the Original Nation scholarship to examine the historical genealogy of the nation’s struggles against the state. A fundamentally different portrait of history, geography, politics, and the role of law emerges when the perspective of the nation and peoples is placed at the center of geopolitical analysis of global affairs. In contrast to traditional and canonical state-centric narratives, the Original Nation scholarship offers a diametrically distinct “on-the-ground” and “bottom-up” portrait of the struggle, resistance, and defiance of the nation and peoples. It exposes persistent global patterns of genocide, ecocide, and ethnocide that have resulted from attempts by the state to occupy, suppress, exploit, and destroy the nation. The Original Nation scholarship offers a powerful and widely applicable intellectual tool to examine the history of resilience, emancipatory struggles, and collective efforts to build a vibrant alternative world among the nation and peoples across the globe.

Hiroshi Fukurai is Professor of Legal Studies and Sociology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, USA, and is the Immediate-Past President of the Asian Law and Society Association (ALSA).

Richard Krooth is a practicing attorney and Research Associate at the University of California, Santa Cruz, USA.