Michael Coyle
Academic Degrees:
LLB (Western University) 1982, LLM (Osgoode) 1998. Member of the Bar of Ontario.
| Email: | mcoyle@uwo.ca |
| Phone: | 519 661-2111 ext. 88453 |
| Office: | LB 106 |
Professor Coyle joined the Faculty of Law in 2000. His primary research interests relate to aboriginal rights and dispute resolution theory.
In 2004 he was commissioned by the Ipperwash Inquiry to write its background research paper on Aboriginal land claims and treaty rights in Ontario. In the past four years he has been invited twice by the Senate Standing Committee on Aboriginal Peoples to present submissions to the Committee on land claims reform. In 2005, together with a group of academics from across the country, he received a five-year SSHRC grant to investigate the negotiation of Aboriginal governance.
He has been the recipient of a UWO international research grant to investigate the role of power relations in indigenous dispute resolution, and in 2008 he was named the first MacCormick Fellow by the University of Edinburgh Law School. In 2011 Michael received a three-year SSHRC research grant to investigate the legal paradigms that might be applied to govern the modern implementation of historical treaties. In 2017 he received another SSHRC grant to synthesise the published literature on the revitalization of Indigenous legal orders in Canada.
Professor Coyle has published many articles on the status of treaties and systemic issues relating to the negotiated settlement of Indigenous rights claims. Along with John Borrows, he is the co-editor of The Right Relationship: Reimagining the Implementation of Historical Treaties (U of T Press, 2017).
Research Highlights
"E Pluribus Plures: Legal Pluralism and the Recognition of Indigenous Legal Orders”, in Paul Schiff Berman, ed., The Oxford Handbook of Global Legal Pluralism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020).
“Shifting the Focus: Viewing Indigenous Consent Not as a Snapshot But as a Feature Film”, (2020) 27 International Journal on Minority and Group Rights 357.
“La responsabilité sociale des entreprises, les autochtones, et la voie de la médiation: le chemin de traverse” (Corporate Social Responsibility, Indigenous Peoples and Mediation: The Path Less Followed) in V. Mercier et S. Brunengo-Basso, eds., RSE et Mediation: Regard Croisé - France-Canada, (Aix-en-Provence: PUAM 2018).
“Rethinking The Transformative Potential of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission: A Skeptic’s Perspective” (2018) 95 Canadian Bar Review 767-794.
“Recognizing Indigenous Legal Orders: Their Content, Embeddedness in Distinct Indigenous Cultures, and Implications for Reconciliation”, SSHRC Knowledge Synthesis Report, September 11, 2017.
The Right Relationship: Reimagining the Implementation of Historical Treaties, John Borrows and Michael Coyle, eds. (University of Toronto Press, 2017). This publication, and the collaborative scholarly workshops that produced it, were funded by my SSHRC Standard Research Grant, as described below.
“As Long As The Sun Shines… Recognizing That Treaties Were Intended To Last”, and (with J. Borrows) “Introduction – Reconciling Treaty Perspectives: Historical, Relational and Legal”, in The Right Relationship, above.
“From Consultation to Consent: Squaring the Circle?” (2016) 67 UNBLJ 235.
“Negotiating Indigenous Peoples’ Exit From Colonialism: Are Interest-Based Strategies The Right Approach?” (2014) 27 Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence 283-303 (Special Issue: “Discourse across the Indigenous/Non-Indigenous Divide”).
"Transcending Colonialism? Power and the Resolution of Indigenous Treaty Claims in Canada and New Zealand" (2011) 24 (4) New Zealand Univ. Law Rev. 596.
“Establishing Indigenous Governance: The Challenge of Confronting Mainstream Cultural Norms”, in G. Otis & M. Papillon (eds), The Relational Dimension of Indigenous Governance and Federalism: Theories and Practices, (Ottawa: Ottawa University Press, 2011).
“Les effets du pouvoir dans les négoçiations sur la gouvernance autochtone”, in L. Côté (dir.) La gouvernance: frontières, dispositifs et agents (Québec: Presses de l’Université du Québec, 2011).
“The Idols of the Cave: Re-imagining the Protection of Indigenous Knowledge and Expression”, (2010) 26:1 Canadian Intellectual Property Review 3.
“Power and the Resolution of Indigenous Land Rights” in K. Basselman, R. Engel and L.Westra, eds., Democracy, Ecological Integrity and International Law (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars, 2010) 131.
