Volume 42 | Number 1 Fall 2006
VI. Conclusion
The present work is based on the assumption that the concept of sovereignty, as defined and shaped by the evolution of international law at the rise of the twenty-first century, can no longer be conceived in the absolute terms of Westphalian sovereignty, but is today considered to be a more dynamic concept applicable not only to the State as such but also, although to a more limited extent, to other sovereign entities within the State itself. It is true that, as pointed out in section III, international law, being originally the creation of Western States and, therefore, basically an expression of their interests, is traditionally impervious to claims threatening to disrupt the exercise of State sovereignty. To use the words of an Australian scholar, “the international norms are manipulated to support a dominant world view that accepts global inequalities as inevitable and seeks to divest law of a role in the redistribution of world power.”182 This notwithstanding, the spread of contemporary practice favorable to the recognition of indigenous autonomy seems to demonstrate that, to a certain extent, the idea of indigenous sovereignty, as parallel to State sovereignty (that is to say that the territorial State, pursuant to international law, can, to a certain extent regulate, but not preclude, its exercise), has emerged in the context of the international legal order, giving rise to a provision of customary law binding States to grant a reasonable degree of sovereignty to indigenous peoples. Although such sovereignty is to be exercised within the realm of the supreme sovereignty of the territorial State, it actually produces the result of shifting some aspects of State sovereignty, providing indigenous peoples with some significant sovereign prerogatives that previously belonged to the State and that, at least in principle, may be opposed to the State itself under general international law. This outcome certainly represents an excellent step forward in the context of the evolution of international law towards a just, fair, and “pluralistic” legal system.
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Footnotes
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