International Center for Cultural Studies

側記進行中論文工作坊：Boundary Institutions: Law, Multiculturalism, and the Innovation of Indigenous Courts in Taiwan

2022-04-13

【進行中論文工作坊 | 演講側記】

活動名稱：進行中論文工作坊

時間：2021/12/20(一)

主持人：謝一誼 I-Yi Hsieh (陽明交通大學，文化研究國際中心，研究員)

發表人：J. Christopher Upton 歐啟祥(清華大學，世界南島暨原住民研究中心，博士後研究員)

文章名稱：Boundary Institutions: Law, Multiculturalism, and the Innovation of Indigenous Courts in Taiwan邊界制度：法律、多元文化與台灣本土法院的創新

評論人：Jeffrey Nicolaisen 倪杰 (陽明交通大學，文化研究國際中心，博士後研究員)

撰稿：J. Christopher Upton 歐啟祥

In this Working Paper Workshop, Dr. Upton presented the introductory chapter of his in-progress book manuscript, Boundary Institutions: Law, Multiculturalism, and the Innovation of Indigenous Courts in Taiwan, documenting his ethnographic research on Taiwan’s newly created system of Indigenous courts, called yuanzhuminzu zhuanye fating or ad hoc Chamber of Indigenous Courts. His introduction considers these court institutions from an anthropologist’s perspective by examining how they contribute to and create obstacles to decolonization efforts; how non-Indigenous judges develop creative, and sometimes conflicting, techniques for incorporating Indigenous law and human rights into state law; how Indigenous actors use the courts to advance their own ideas about culture and law; and how management of Indigenous life, through institutions like the Indigenous courts, has emerged as an important part of Taiwan’s performance of sovereignty. The introduction argues that Taiwan’s Indigenous courts can be conceived as boundary institutions operating on the frontier of state law, international human rights, Indigenous law, and Buddhist and Christian precepts and working, with mixed success, to incorporate Indigenous cultural practices and understandings of justice into legal proceedings. During the workshop, the discussants had a lively conversation. Topics of discussion included audience, significance of the courts, legal pluralism, sovereignty, and ontologies of the state, law, and Indigenous peoples.