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In this article I take a particular view of the Law as a tool that shapes government mandated impact assessment (IA) of infrastructure projects, seeking to investigate whether IA can address disparate adverse effects on Indigenous people, their laws, and cultures. The literature review aims to construct a set of criteria based on equitable considerations by which to evaluate IA as a particular procedural and regulatory framework for decision-making about infrastructure projects. In the article, I analyse the scholarship on the environmental justice (EJ) framework applied to natural resource and environmental decision-making, comparing this analytical framework to the general procedures and rules by which impact assessment is conducted. Many scholars argue that IA laws and policies often reinforce asymmetries and inequalities by not taking into account economic, cultural, and spiritual specificities and vulnerabilities of affected individuals. There is a fundamental gap between IA frameworks and Indigenous perspectives. I outline some of the critiques of IA and how EJ addresses them. Based on this analysis, I summarize criteria by which to evaluate IA laws and policies, in the Canadian context, paying particular attention to adverse effects of infrastructure projects on Indigenous peoples and their territories. Focusing on the Canadian IA regime, the objective is to provide a theoretical perspective of the role of Law in decision-making about large infrastructure projects.
Dans cet article, l'auteure fait valoir un point de vue particulier selon lequel le droit, en tant qu'outil, permet d'encadrer les evaluations d'impact de projets d'infrastructure demandees par le gouvernement et de verifier si de telles evaluations peuvent traiter d'une serie d'effets negatifs sur les peuples autochtones, leurs lois et leurs cultures. Une revue de la doctrine permet d'elaborer une serie de criteres fondes sur des considerations equitables au moyen desquelles il est possible de mesurer les evaluations d'impact en tant que cadre procedural et reglementaire singulier dans le contexte de la prise de decisions concernant les projets d'infrastructure. Dans cet article, l'auteure analyse la doctrine concernant le cadre applicable a la justice environnementale en ce qui a trait a la prise de decisions en matiere de ressources naturelles et d'environnement et compare ce cadre analytique aux procedures et regles generales en vertu desquelles les evaluations d'impact sont menees. Plusieurs auteurs font valoir que les...