Die verfassungsrechtliche Anerkennung indigenen Rechts, Rechtspluralismus und Menschenrechte

The international world order is structured along nation-state lines. In many regions of the world, multi-cultural and multi-religious societies live within a territory whose borders stem from the time of colonisation and whose people did not as a whole participate in the formation of the state. The overdue recognition of the right to self-determination of indigenous peoples comprises the recognition of indigenous norms and legal institutions and results in officially plural legal systems. As indigenous laws are determined by principles different from western approaches to law, the question arises of how to deal with the frictions between these distinct discourses, notably with regard to human rights. Two case studies, namely South Africa and Bolivia, are carried out in order to illustrate which challenges arise due to the recognition of indigenous legal systems on the domestic level and to demonstrate what methods of institutional embedding of legal pluralism exist.