ENV 772a/Law 20441 () / 2023-2024

Indigenous Self-Government in the U.S. Constitutional Order

Credits: 2
Fall 2023: Th, 4:10-6:00, SLB - TBD
 

 
ENV 772 is only available to students enrolled in YSE. 
Send a one-page essay to gerald.torres@yale.edu Subject Line: ENV 722 application, as to why you want to take the course. Requests must be sent by August 27.

Native people in the United States have been building institutions of self-governance in the face of enormous colonial pressure for centuries. This course will consider the unique legal positions of Native American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian citizens in the United States as well as the residents of the U.S. territories. The course would introduce students to contemporary legal debates and social movements in the U.S. territories, Indian Country, and Hawaii and explore how overseas expansionism and relations with Indigenous peoples have shaped U.S. constitutional theory and doctrine. This course will demonstrate how the constitutional condition of the U.S. territories, Tribal nations, Alaska villages, and Hawai‘i occupy more than niche legal issues but  require us to think more broadly about borders, race, indigeneity, and citizenship in the U.S. We want to focus on the institutions of self-governance both to illustrate the continued resistance to colonial rule and to highlight the unique constitutional questions US colonial actions have posed from the very beginning.
Limited to 5 YSE Students