Bringing Legal Education to the Canadian Arctic: the Development of the Akitsiraq Law School and the Challenges for Providing Library Services to a Non-traditional Law School

• Published in: International Journal of Legal Information
• Main Author: Ableson, Serena
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 2006
• Subjects: Law; Library and Information Sciences; Arctic; Baffin Island; Baffin; inuit
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0731126500001190; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0731126500001190

In the Canadian Arctic on the southwestern tip of Baffin Island, there is a sacred meeting place marked by a ring of massive stones, “some weighing up to a ton, standing on end and arranged in a near perfect circle.” This place is called Akitsirqavik [cited as Akitsiraq] and for generations, this is the spot where people gathered for celebrations, games, feasts, and is the place where the Inuit Great Council met to discuss conflicts in their community and to agree upon solutions to these disputes. The last known Inuit traditional trial, a murder trial, occurred here in 1924. Akitsiraq means “to strike out, [to] render justice.”