| This thesis will use P. W. Kahn's cultural approach to law, found in The Cultural Study of Law: Reconstructing Legal Scholarship, as a methodology to examine a recent and important Aboriginal land claim decision---the Chippewas of Sarnia case. After embarking on an explanation of this methodology to be utilised, I will provide a detailed description of the Ontario Superior Court and Court of Appeal decisions in that case. In a doctrinal exploration of the case I will then allege that both decisions rely heavily on a large scope of judicial discretion.; This exercise of discretion, from a cultural perspective, prompts the question of what factors, beliefs and ideologies contribute to the exercise of discretion in this particular case. In order to do this I will ask the question of what conditions make these particular judgments valuable, practical, and acceptable decisions under the rule of law. |
