Aboriginal Justice and the Charter : Realizing a Culturally Sensitive Interpretation of Legal Rights

Aboriginal Justice and the Charter explores the tension between Aboriginal justice methods and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, seeking practical ways to implement Aboriginal justice. David Milward examines nine legal rights guaranteed by the Charter and undertakes a thorough search for interpretations sensitive to Aboriginal culture.

Much of the previous literature in this area has dealt with idealized notions of what Aboriginal justice might be. Here, David Milward strikes out into new territory to examine why Indigenous communities seek to explore different paths in this area, and to identify some of the applicable constitutional constraints. This book considers a number of specific areas of the criminal justice process in which Indigenous communities may wish to adopt different approaches, tests these approaches against constitutional imperatives, and offers practical proposals for reconciling the various matters at stake. Milward grapples with the difficult questions of how Aboriginal justice systems can be fair to its constituents while complying with the protections guaranteed all Canadians by the Charter.