Legal pluralism in the world society? : the customary law of indigenous peoples based on the example of the Greenlandic Inuit

Abstract

"The traditional Greenlandic customary law, which is of significance for villagers in the small settlements on Greenland's west coast, is confronted with conflicting demands by the global environmental regime. Can traditional customary rights of indigenous peoples be maintained in a global society? As the example of the Greenlandic Inuit illustrates the conflict to ensure the continuation of hunting activities, however, cannot be understood as a conflict between societies that have different legal and rationality conceptions. The intellectual elites in the Greenland Self-Government are taking over the structural patterns of the global model of nature and run information campaigns about the biological status of the species. Hunters cite their traditional hunting rights and reject this information and those hunting restrictions. As a consequence, intra-societal conflicts develop between Greenland elites and hunters and thus in situations of legal pluralism within Greenland." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Sowa, F. (2014): Rechtspluralismus in der Weltgesellschaft? Zum Gewohnheitsrecht von indigenen Völkern am Beispiel der grönländischen Inuit. In: Zeitschrift für Rechtssoziologie, Vol. 33, No. 2, p. 283-300.