The Indigenous Peoples’ Journal of Law, Culture & Resistance

The Sami, who straddle three Nordic countries and the Russian Federation, are an Indigenous people who have lived on their lands since time immemorial. The legal framework that governs them must take into consideration that they are a semi-nomadic people, as some of their population live in settled communities while some practice a nomadic lifestyle. Their land use bears similarities to those of the indigenous peoples of the United States, Canada and Australasia in terms of grazing and living in harmony with the environment. The Sami have been granted a dispensation that provides them partial sovereignty through the establishment of Parliamentary Assemblies in Norway, Sweden, and Finland. The establishment of these new bodies has not dissipated their need to assert ownership over land and to resist industrial exploration owing to the grant of mineral licenses that have viscerated their rights. The issue is whether the Sami can achieve restitution by an assertion of full title to land in Norway, which has the highest percentage of Indigenous population in Scandinavia, and whether public-interest litigation based on self determination is available to them to achieve this goal. This Paper argues that the Sami can affirm their land claims in fee simple by legal processes in the courts and achieve this ownership as an indigenous right to land if that is recognized to be sui generis.