The Arctic Promise: Legal and Political Autonomy of Greenland and Nunavut

Extract

The Arctic Promise: Legal and Political Autonomy of Greenland and Nunavut, Natalia Loukacheva, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007, pp. xii, 255.

Is there political space for a northern vision of governance? This book is a comparative evaluation of Inuit efforts to realize autonomy within the Danish realm and Canadian federation through the creation and evolution of Greenland and Nunavut. A comparative legal and historical analysis is used to make normative claims about Inuit autonomy in these two jurisdictions. The concept of autonomy is defined by the author as “equivalent to self-government in the context of an internal right to self-determination” (6). It is argued that there is no need for Inuit in either territory to pursue a special type of indigenous autonomy because Inuit legal and political aspirations can be realized through existing arrangements. Loukacheva claims, “The Inuit majorities of Nunavut and Greenland in practice are turning de jure territorial forms of governance into de facto indigenous ones” (40). The evidence presented in this book may not constitute the last word on Inuit autonomy, but it sure is provocative.