The Perils of Identity by Caroline Dick, Hardcover | Indigo Chapters

Calls for the provision of group rights have become a common part of Canada’s political and legal landscape. Many liberal theorists consider group identity claims a necessary condition of equality, but do they do more harm than good?To answer this question, Caroline Dick engages in a critical analysis of liberal identity theories and their application in the Supreme Court of Canada, particularly in Sawridge Band v. Canada, a case that sets a First Nation’s right to govern community membership against indigenous women’s right to equality. She contrasts Charles Taylor’s theory of identity recognition, Will Kymlicka’s cultural theory of minority rights, and Avigail Eisenberg’s theory of identity-related interests with an alternative rights framework that takes account of both group and in-group differences. Dick concludes that the problem is not the concept of identity per se but rather the way in which prevailing conceptions of identity and group rights frameworks obscure the interests of intragroup minorities such as women. In response to the question – what are judges to do? – Dick proposes a politics of intragroup difference that has the potential to transform the way the courts address group identity claims and issues such as Aboriginal rights in Canada and around the world. | The Perils of Identity by Caroline Dick, Hardcover | Indigo Chapters