Tilvenningen til samisk kultur og rettstenking i norsk høyesterettspraksis. Om møtet mellom en muntlig og en tekstbasert rettskultur

Abstract

A major problem for all indigenous peoples who live under the legal rule of a majority population is that their legal culture is often based on oral traditions, which suffer because of the text-based legal culture of the majority population. After a brief historic review of the relations between the Saami and the Norwegians, the author discusses the significance of Saami customary law and other elements of Saami legal thinking. The author discusses whether traditional elements from Saami culture could be of relevance in future court cases by analyzing the use of analogous material in a ruling from the Canadian Supreme Court. In the main part of the article, the author discusses whether or not important rulings from the Norwegian Supreme Court concerning the Saami have taken Saami legal thinking in consideration. The author concludes that the recent Supreme Court rulings in the Selbu and Svartskog cases mark a new age for the significance of Saami legal thinking, and their cultural heritage.