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5 - “Life Comes from It”: Navajo Justice Concepts

from Part II - Voices

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2019

By
The Honorable Robert Yazzie
Edited by
Grant Christensen  and
Melissa L. Tatum
Grant Christensen
Affiliation:
University of North Dakota
Melissa L. Tatum
Affiliation:
University of Arizona
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Summary

Life Comes from It': provides a Navajo perspective on law’s origins and its place in governance. Indian conceptions of law are not necessarily bound by a hierarchical premise and by technical principles like stare decisis but instead emerge from the mutual obligations and expectations of the community, with a focus on healing. Yazzie explains that while ‘Anglo’ law is concerned with social control, Navajo law comes from the Navajo belief that all humans are equal, and that starting from a different vantage point allows law itself to be reoriented.

Type
Chapter
Information
Reading American Indian Law
Foundational Principles
 , pp. 121 - 139
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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References

Further Reading

Austin, Raymond D., Navajo Courts and Navajo Common Law (University of Minnesota Press 2009).Google Scholar
Borrows, John, Drawing Out Law: A Spirit’s Guide (University of Toronto Press 2010).Google Scholar
Deer, Sarah & Richland, Justin B., Introduction to Tribal Legal Studies (Rowman & Littlefield 3rd ed. 2015).Google Scholar
Cooter, Robert & Fikentscher, Wolfgang, Indian Common Law: The Role of Custom in American Indian Tribal Courts, 46 Am. J. Comp. L. 287 (1998).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fletcher, Matthew L. M., Rethinking Customary Law in Tribal Court Jurisprudence, 13 Mich. J. Race & L 57 (2007).Google Scholar
Hendry, Jennifer & Tatum, Melissa L., Justice for Native Nations: Insights from Legal Pluralism, 60 Ariz. L. Rev. 91 (2018).Google Scholar
Jones, B.J., Tribal Courts: Protectors of the Native Paradigm of Justice, 10 St. Thomas L. Rev. 87 (1997).Google Scholar
Porter, Robert, Strengthening Tribal Sovereignty through Peacemaking: How the Anglo-American Legal Tradition Destroys Indigenous Societies, 28 Columbia Human Rights L. Rev. 235 (1997).Google Scholar
Valencia-Weber, Gloria, Tribal Courts: Custom and Innovative Law, 24 N.M. L. Rev. 225 (1994).Google Scholar

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