Accommodating Cultural Diversity

Stephen Tierney is Reader in Law at the University of Edinburgh, UK.

• Contents: Foreword, The Honourable Justice Michel Bastarache; Cultural diversity: normative theory and constitutional practice, Stephen Tierney. Part I The Evolving Theory of Cultural Diversity: The global diffusion of multiculturalism: trends, causes, consequences, Will Kymlicka; Towards a hybrid theory of multinational justice, Helder de Schutter; Putting Kymlicka in perspective: Canadian diversity and collective rights, Dwight Newman. Part II Institutional Accommodation in Theory and Practice: The Case of Aboriginal Peoples: Reasoning about the identity of Aboriginal people, Avigail Eisenberg; Self-government in Canada: a successful model for the decolonization of Aboriginal child welfare? Sonia Harris-Short; Cultural pluralism and the return of cultural heritage, Kathryn Last. Part III Diversity and Constitutional Interpretation: The reasonable person and the discrimination inquiry, Mayo Moran; Quebec and the amending formula: protection, promotion and federalism, Peter C. Oliver; Understanding the rule of law in Canada, Warren Newman; Index.

'There is hardly a more pressing question nor a more difficult one for constitutional law than the accommodation of different cultural traditions within the same polity. This collection of essays, with a distinctly Canadian focus to it, contributes both theoretical analysis and practical experience towards an understanding of how entrenched difference may be approached. Some of the essays are genuine heavyweight discussion and, as a whole, the writers do not give up on the possibility of obtaining workable and just solutions to the most intractable of problems.' Colin Warbrick, Birmingham University 'This is an excellent collection, one of the very best in recent years to examine the legal problems of multiculturalism. The text is self-consciously both 'local' and 'cosmopolitan'. It draws heavily on Canada as perhaps the most fertile source of the theory and practice of legal multiculturalism in recent years. But it also broadens its horizons to make a fine contribution to the debate on multiculturalism in general. It should figure high on the reading list of anyone interested in what is destined to be the key constiutional question of the new century.' Neil Walker, European University Institute, Florence