Doctoral Dissertation Research: Dispute Resolution within Specialized Judiciary Systems

对法律制度的学术研究表明，法律制度的效力取决于人们对其公正性的普遍信念，但人们很难理解土著权利和主权主张对司法程序的影响。各国为解决法律冲突制定了各种战略，包括通过保护土著人民的特别国内法，遵守有关土著和社区权利的国际准则，以及设立特别法院机构，以纳入土著的正义观念。该研究项目旨在培养学生的经验、科学数据收集和分析方法，探讨旨在解决国家和土著社区之间争端的特别法庭的规则制定能力。具体而言，通过关注跨文化纠纷，该项目考虑了这些法庭如何建立一个有效运作和值得信赖的法律体系。j·克里斯托弗·厄普顿（J. Christopher Upton）将在印第安纳大学（Indiana University）萨拉·弗里德曼（Sara Friedman）博士的指导下，探讨作为调解不同社会背景的边界组织的特别法庭，在解决法律纠纷时采用的策略。本研究将在台湾进行，在台湾，原住民问题最近成为多元文化主义和国家主权的全国性对话的前沿。台湾作为一个民主自治的国家，在国际体系中占据着一个反常的位置，没有得到大多数其他国家的正式承认。在这种背景下，土著问题具有独特的突出性，因为对国际准则的明显遵守为台湾提供了在世界平台上维护自己的机会。因此，台湾最近设立了一套特别的土著法院。这些特设法庭已纳入国内法院系统，其目的是解决涉及土著诉讼人的争端，对其文化差异更加敏感。使用人种学方法，调查人员将研究这些法院如何制定有关土著习俗的规则。调查人员将研究法官、律师和土著诉讼当事人在解决土著习俗纠纷时的相互作用，探索司法程序如何为规则制定开辟空间，使其成为一个共同构成的过程，而不仅仅是国家以自上而下的方式授予的合法权利。研究将集中于某一法庭，通过参与观察司法程序，在12个月内收集数据；采访法官、律师和土著诉讼当事人；与当地律师合作处理涉及有争议的土著习俗的案件；复审案件判决。总而言之，本研究项目考虑了使用专门司法机构创建有关土著实践的规则的动态过程，以及这些专门法院如何推进土著法律保护并确保一个有效且值得信赖的法律体系。

Scholarly examinations of legal systems have established that their efficacy depends on widespread conviction in their fairness, but have struggled to understand what influence claims of indigenous rights and sovereignty have on the judicial process. States have developed various strategies for the resolution of legal conflicts, including the passage of special domestic laws protecting indigenous peoples, adherence to international norms pertaining to indigenous and community rights, and the establishment of special court bodies to incorporate indigenous notions of justice. This research project, which trains a student in the methods of empirical, scientific data collection and analysis, explores the rule-making capacities of special tribunals designed to resolve disputes between the state and indigenous communities. Specifically, by concentrating on cross-cultural disputes, the project considers what these tribunals do to establish an effectively functioning and trusted legal system. J. Christopher Upton, under the supervision of Dr. Sara Friedman of the Indiana University, will explore what strategies are used in special tribunals, as boundary organizations mediating distinct social contexts, to resolve legal disputes. This research will be conducted in Taiwan where indigenous issues have recently emerged at the forefront of a national conversation about multiculturalism and national sovereignty. Taiwan occupies an anomalous place in the international system as a democratic self-ruling state that does not enjoy formal recognition from most other countries. Indigenous issues have unique salience in this context insofar as visible compliance with international norms provides an opportunity for Taiwan to assert itself on the world platform. As a result, Taiwan has recently created a special set of indigenous courts. These ad hoc tribunals are integrated into the domestic court system and are designed to resolve disputes involving indigenous litigants with greater sensitivity to their cultural differences. Using ethnographic methods, the investigators will study how these courts craft rules about indigenous customary practices. The investigators will examine the interactions of judges, lawyers, and indigenous litigants as they resolve disputes about indigenous customary practices, exploring how judicial proceedings open a space for rule-making to be a co-constitutive process, rather than simply as legal rights granted in a top-down fashion by the state. The research will be focused on a particular tribunal, collecting data over 12 months through participant observation in judicial proceedings; interviewing judges, lawyers, and indigenous litigants; working with local lawyers handling cases involving contentious indigenous practices; and reviewing case decisions. In sum, this research project considers the dynamic process of creating rules about indigenous practices using a specialized judiciary and what these specialized courts do to advance indigenous legal protections and secure a functioning and trusted legal system.