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This article will focus on a set of fifteenth-century assumptions regarding sovereignty known as the Doctrine of Discovery. The doctrine was the "legal" means by which Europeans claimed preemptive rights in the New World, and it underlies the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples to this day. This article will explore the Doctrine's development from its inception to its integration into Canadian law. By demonstrating continuity between fifteenth century papal bulls, the Royal Proclamation, the Constitution Act, 1982, and Supreme Court holdings, I will argue that Aboriginal title in Canada was-and continues to be-entrenched in the Doctrine of Discovery.
L'article se concentre sur un ensemble d'hypothèses du XVe siècle au sujet de la souveraineté, connu sous le nom de « doctrine de la découverte ». La doctrine a été le moyen « légal » qu'ont utilisé les Européens pour faire valoir des droits de préemption dans le Nouveau Monde et elle sous-tend toujours les liens entre Autochtones et nonAutochtones. L'article examine l'élaboration de la doctrine, de sa création à son intégration dans le droit canadien. En démontrant la continuité entre les bulles papales, la Proclamation royale, la Loi constitutionnelle de 1982 et les décisions de la Cour suprême, l'auteure met de l'avant que le titre ancestral au Canada a été et continue d'être inscrit dans la doctrine de la découverte.
Most non-Aboriginal Canadians are aware of the fact that Indigenous peoples commonly regard land rights as culturally and religiously significant. Fewer non-Natives, I suspect, would consider their own connection with property in the same light; and fewer still would regard the legal foundation of all land rights in Canada as conspicuously theological. In fact, however, it is. The relationship between law and land in Canada can be traced to a set of fifteenth century theological assumptions that have found their way into both common law and the Canadian Constitution. These assumptions, collectively referred to as the Doctrine of Discovery, were initially formulated to mediate rivalries among European states vying for sovereignty rights in the New World. Although there were antecedents to the doctrine, it was Pope Alexander Vl who applied them to the Atlantic World of the fifteenth century, in a two-part papal bull known as Inter caetera. The Doctrine of...