American Indian Law in a Nutshell

by William C. Canby Jr.

Book Overview

This guide provides a reliable resource on American Indian law. Its authoritative text covers the essentials of this complex body of law, with attention to the governmental policies underlying it. The... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0314146407
• ISBN13: 9780314146403
• Release Date: February 2004
• Publisher: West Group Publishing
• Length: 496 Pages
• Weight: 1.02 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 4.8" x 7.3"

Customer Reviews

Excellent introduction or study resource

I took a course in Federal Indian Law in my 3L year and found this book to be an excellent resource and study tool. It summarized the law nicely and pointed out emerging and unresolved issues in Indian law. It is good at giving both a basic understanding and helping you to think through more sophisticated problems in Indian law. It was indispensable for studying for my final and was very useful as a quick reference while writing a paper on Indian law when I needed to figure out the names of cases that created particular rules or to check whether a case existed that was on point to what I was discussing.

The Best Place to Start to Understand Indian Law

Although I understand the earlier reviewer's concern regarding anti-discrimination law and how miserable law school can be, I have found this book to be the best possible introduction to Indian Law. My law school offered no Indian Law class, and wanting to learn more after I read about the Cobell case, I needed a concise book. Canby has done a wonderful job. His historical introduction is a quick and engrossing read, and the other chapters in the book are equally clear and concise. I owe him much, given that I wrote two papers on Indian Law in law school and quoted extensively from him. Yes, Indian Law is a complex field where tribal sovereignty and the government's trust responsibility often collide and where concepts of jurisdiction and property are seriously muddled, but Canby gives you just what you need to get your legs under you, understand the basic concepts, and know where to begin to research from there. If the Indian Law bug bites you after reading this book, which it likely will, then you can move on to the 2005 edition of Felix Cohen's Handbook of Federal Indian Law or the 2005 Clinton, Goldberg and Tsosie American Indian Law manual - and spend the big bucks!

Great book

I took an elective in Native American Law at Whittier Law School in Summer 2001. This Nutshell book was the reading for the first day of class and we used a case book for the rest of the classes. I found Judge Canby's writing style very readable and understandable. I used the table of contents for a study outline and the civil and criminal jurisdiction tables were helpful at exam time.

American Indian Law in a Nutshell

I am currently designing an American Indian Law college course for an assignment at Iowa State University. This text has been extremly useful. It is a dense, informative, must-have for anyone going into or interested in American Indian Law, politics, federal law, historical law or American law. Canby presents legal facts with the historical and current American setiment of the American Indian. He also includes effects on and the general reactions of American Indians to laws past and present, politics are not excluded.

This is the best introductory summary of the subject matter.

I teach federal Indian law to undergraduate and graduate students. This book by Judge Canby is our primary text, supplemented by a 500-page course reader. Although federal Indian law is the most complex body of law in the U.S. legal system, the Canby book gives scholars and novices alike a good educational and reference work on the multitude of subjects that are covered. I recommend it as a 1st source for anyone interested in federal Indian law.