Is the rule of law in and of itself illegal?
By Professor Elizabeth Cook-Lynn
Native Sun News Today Columnist
The writers of a recent book
PLUNDER are trying to bring into the consciousness of indigenous peoples like us out here in the Northern Plains the thinking of Third World ideologies as the only way to rid ourselves of America’s use of “the idea of the rule of law,” deemed to be a risk to “minority” populations. The text does, of course, bring up the issue of “majority rule,” doesn’t it?
Why would we go there now to condemn “the rule of law,” when we are at a crossroads? Presently it seems more important than ever before to defend the ‘’”rule of law,” we Americans have a federal regime that seems intent upon abandoning “the rule of law” entirely.
As of this week, the Congress of the United States is charging the US Attorney General with “contempt,” which means, one supposes, that even as we think of law as an essential trait of democracy, it is said by the Trump lawyers, to be just a “buzzword” rising out of the 16thcentury, and they counsel the AG that he doesn’t even have to show up to discuss the argument with the elected officials of Washington, D. C.!
It’s probably important to remember that the AG is an APPOINTED official, not elected by the people.
Elizabeth
Cook-Lynn. Courtesy photo
Those who worry about all of this know that the real issue here is the “separation of powers “issue which comes from the constitution. It all amounts to what we call “hegemonic power.” the struggle between the people, the House, the Senate and Executive.
The major writer of this book
PLUNDER that is on everyone’s shelf these days, is Laura Nader, an anthropologist who is, yes, the sister of Ralph Nader. Indian Studies professionals have been reading these points of view for some time because it seems that there is a dark side to the “rule of law” ideology, a virtue firmly embedded in Democracy.
Nader agrees that “the rule of law” is a global legacy of the British Empire, agreeing it is a tenet of Colonization used throughout history to provide support for hegemonic and aggressive colonization of Indigenous peoples.
Yet, she has been one of the few non-Indian scholars who, for example, described what is called “The Ghost Dance of the 1890’s” a time of revitalization rather than a dismal end to a terrible conflict , and she has suggested that Indians….in the long run of history…..are not losers, but are instead fortified by such rituals. Her POV gives substance and support to the “protectors” of water as a sacred element and she believes these “protesters” will win in the end.
There are several chapters in this book, though, that tell us that the reliance on “the rule of law”, a phrase so much in the news today, has played a supporting role in the plunder of weaker peoples all over the world. She says that such an ideal as “the rule of law” has been used to impose brutal violence on humankind, i.e., war, plunder, slave trading, massive killings, ethnic cleansing and genocide.
Perhaps the most worrisome of the conclusions reached by this author is that our ideal in law has provided legitimacy to the concepts of progress as well as white supremacy and that is a bad thing for Indians. Vine Deloria, Jr. the major Indian Law Scholar of our time, wrote about this when he examined the prospect of the survival of Indian Nationhood in the next century.
Contact Elizabeth Cook-Lynn at ecooklynn@gmail.com
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