The Duty to Consult

In a concise manner, the author addresses issues including: what consultation with Aboriginal communities means; when it is required; the importance of non-legal approaches to defining the duty; and the evolving international duty to consult and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

What does the duty to consult actually mean, and when it is required? The policies and decisions made regarding this duty are concisely outlined, along with important questions that remain.

Dwight Newman is Associate Professor of Law at the University of Saskatchewan, where he also served as Associate Dean of Law from 2006 to 2009. He is also an Honourary Senior Research Fellow at the University of the Witwatersrand School of Law in South Africa. He completed his law degree at the University of Saskatchewan, following which he served as a law clerk to Chief Justice Lamer and Justice LeBel at the Supreme Court of Canada. He completed his doctorate at Oxford University, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar and as a SSHRC Doctoral Fellow. He has written numerous articles on Aboriginal law, constitutional law, and international law, and he is co-author of Understanding Property: A Guide to Canada’s Property Law, 2nd ed.