Book Review: Stephen Young, Indigenous Peoples, Consent and Rights: Troubling Subjects (Routledge, 2020)

The topic of this award-winning book is the production of 'indigenous peoples' as subjects. According to international human rights discourse, 'Indigenous peoples' have the capacity to claim 'free, prior and informed consent' (FPIC) to influence and control decisions that concern First Nation Peoples. The Book takes up the challenge identified by Kathy Bowrey (2011), to theorise the disciplinary power of legal institutions as regards Indigenous peoples and the law. A central contention of Stephen Young is that many scholars 'overestimate what FPIC can do' and underestimate what it demands of individuals and communities (Young, 2020, 211).