Research methods for contracts in Indigenous legal orders

Alan Hanna

Chapter 12 in Research Methods for Contract Law and Scholarship, 2025, pp 288-316 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Methodological approaches to a colonial legal category such as the law of contract from an Indigenous perspective color conversations across disparate legal orders. Contract law originates in a particular history in European law (common law and civil code) and was carried into colonial states such as Canada. This particular history defines the meaning of contract at law, however fluid that meaning may be in the scholarship. Ultimately, to research contract law from an Indigenous perspective requires accepting that analogous commitments or obligations to other parties exist with the force of law. Ontological and epistemological logics underpinning an Indigenous society provide the foundation for relationships that are governed by legal obligations from within the relevant Indigenous legal order. This chapter contributes to ongoing discussions about how legal scholars may begin to research Indigenous laws relating to contract in a deep and meaningful manner. The research process includes steps toward achieving a basis of understanding that allows engagement in a conversation around meaning. A methodological approach should foster the ability to recognize similarities and differences across legal orders while resisting the urge to make definitive claims about the learned knowledge.

Keywords: Contract; Methodology; Indigenous; Obligation; First Nation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035316465
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