DISCOVERING THE DOCTRINE OF DISCOVERY

The doctrine of discovery is a concept in crisis. A principle of public international law associated with the so-called Age of Discovery, the doctrine of discovery is commonly said to have authorized European nations to claim the lands of indigenous peoples and establish settlements on the basis of “discovery” alone. Today, with good reason, the doctrine is widely condemned. The United Nations has denounced it as “the very foundation of genocide.” Describing its manifest injustices against indigenous cultures, dominion, and sovereignty as “devastating, far-reaching and intergenerational,” the UN Economic and Social Council has called for the doctrine to be categorically repudiated and its ongoing effects redressed.

Many nation-specific organizations agree. The American Indian Law Alliance cites the doctrine of discovery as the theoretical undergirding for centuries of European land theft worldwide, the genocide of indigenous peoples, and the origin of the Atlantic slave trade.5 In 2015, the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission called for its repudiation, asserting that it fraudulently legitimized European sovereignty over indigenous peoples and their lands. Criticism of the doctrine has been especially pronounced within twenty-first century Christian . . .