Embracing Disruption and Other Lessons from Canada

• Main Author: Shoemaker, Jessica A.
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: Penn Carey Law: Legal Scholarship Repository 2021
• Subjects: Rights; Canada; First Nations; Land Use; Tribal Land; Tribal Regulation; Administrative Law; Law; Arctic; Northwest Territories; Nunavut; Climate change; inuit; inuktitut; Iqaluit; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/regreview-opinion/246; https://www.theregreview.org/2021/03/29/shoemaker-embracing-disruption-canada/

In 2019, I found myself in Iqaluit, Nunavut—the small capital city of the newest and northernmost territory in Canada. Nunavut means “our land” in Inuktitut, an Inuit language, and the population of Nunavut remains nearly 80 percent Inuit. One of the many surprising aspects of Nunavut is how flexible and dynamic property law seems when you are standing on Arctic ice. Part of this property experience is practical. Adaptive property systems naturally calibrate to the physical geography in which they are built, and in Nunavut, the frozen landscape is particularly formative. Offshore, the sea ice on which residents frequently traverse can shift with underlying currents and tides. At times, the ground literally moves beneath your feet. Nunavut is also facing the consequences of rapid climate change. At the same time, throughout Iqaluit’s beautiful, brightly colored neighborhoods, schoolchildren and pedestrians scramble over snowdrifts and trace winding footpaths to get from one point to another. Property feels different without fences, marked lot lines, or even formal sidewalks. But the dynamism of property law in Nunavut is also legal. Nunavut Territory is recognized because of a comprehensive land claim agreement that came into force in 1993 between the Canadian federal government, the government of the Northwest Territories, and the Tungavik Federation of Nunavut—the representative of the Inuit people of what is now Nunavut. This land claim agreement changed not only who owns land and resources in Nunavut but also who governs the region. These transitions involve ongoing renegotiations of fundamental property understandings in the territory as well. Just five years ago, Nunavummiut—the people of Nunavut—considered, but resoundingly rejected, a referendum that would have allowed some land to transition to new forms of private ownership. Instead, Nunavummiut voted to retain a housing system built largely on long-term leases of collectively held municipal lands. The Nunavut Territory is also still navigating an ...