Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program Overview

A Community to Support You

University of Arizona Law students benefit from the mentorship and support of their fellow classmates and faculty. The University of Arizona Native American Law Students Association creates a welcoming and supportive environment for students and is one of the largest chapters in the country. The Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy (IPLP) Program also brings a global cohort of graduate students who are legal scholars and advocates from Indigenous communities across the world.  

Unparalleled Experiential Learning Opportunities

The IPLP Program provides students with unparalleled clinical opportunities. We offer three year-round faulty-led clinics focused on working with tribes and Indigenous communities across the world. Students get the opportunity to work closely with tribal leaders, institutions, and courts to promote justice in Indian country and work on a wide range of Indigenous human rights advocacy projects in the United Nations and other international human rights bodies.

Leaders in Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy

Faculty at the Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy (IPLP) Program instill a strong understanding of the legal foundations of federal Indian law, tribal self-determination, and the trust responsibility, informed by developing norms of contemporary international law respecting Indigenous peoples’ human rights. We equip students with the critical thinking skills and lawyering tools needed to develop innovative and effective legal strategies and policy initiatives to promote and advance the rights of Indigenous communities across Indian Country and throughout the world.

The faculty at IPLP have extensive experience in a wide range of fields and roles including:

• Federal Indian law
• Indigenous peoples’ law, policy, and human rights
• International and domestic environmental and natural resource law
• Economic development within Indigenous communities
• Tribal governance and self-determination
• Native Nation Building
• Indigenous Entrepreneurship
• Jurisdiction within Indian Country
• Constitutions of Indigenous Nations
• Critical race theory
• Cultural property law
• Indigenous Food Sovereignty
• Intergovernmental Relations
• Native Economic Development
• Implementing the Violence Against Women Act within tribal communities
• Serving as tribal court judges
• Representing Indigenous communities before the United States Supreme Court, domestic courts in Latin America, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Peoples, and the Supreme Court of Canada

IPLP’s Native Nation Building Impact

Professor Williams (Lumbee) reflects on IPLP’s impact and how the Native Nation Building legacy inspired by the late Vine Deloria, Jr. (Standing Rock Sioux Tribe) continues to animate the program.

Image

“The IPLP Program prepares our students to be leaders in their communities, in their fields of expertise, and in their practice as professionals. Our goal is to train the next generation of legal advocates promoting the rights of Indigenous people here in the United States and around the world. By teaching an understanding of how prevailing norms and principles within federal Indian law, international human rights law, and tribal law and legal knowledge can be fused and integrated to advance recognition of Indigenous peoples’ self-determination, IPLP students graduate with a wide range of theoretical knowledge, practical experience, and innovative strategies to affect change.”

Robert A. Williams, Jr., Regents Professor, E. Thomas Sullivan Professor of Law; Faculty Co-Chair, Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program

University of Arizona Law Rankings

• #55 best law school (U.S. News and World Report)
• #8 Legal Writing program (U.S. News and World Report)
• #30 Environmental Law program (U.S. News and World Report)
• #52 Constitutional Law program (U.S. News and World Report)
• #38 International Law program (U.S. News and World Report)
• #19 practical training (PreLaw magazine)
• #32 scholarly impact (University of St. Thomas School of Law, Minnesota)

APPLY NOW