R. v. Marshall [1999] 3 S.C.R. 456 and R. v. Marshall (No. 2) [1999] 3 S.C.R. 533 are two decisions given by the Supreme Court of Canada

Supreme Court of Canada

The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court of Canada and is the final court of appeals in the Canadian justice system. The court grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants each year to appeal decisions rendered by provincial, territorial and federal appellate courts, and its decisions...

 on a single case regarding a treaty right to fish.

Decisions

The Court held in the first decision that the famous Donald Marshall's catching and selling of eels was valid under 1760 and 1761 treaties between the aboriginals and the colonial government, and that any licensing system or regulatory prohibitions would infringe the treaty right.

In the second decision the Court elaborated the extension of aboriginal treaty rights stating that they are still subject to Canadian law. Both decisions proved highly controversial. The first elicited anger from the non-aboriginal fishing community for giving seemingly complete immunity to aboriginals to fish. The second decision, which was claimed to be an "elaboration", was seen as a retreat from the first decision and angered aboriginal communities. The second decision was issued on a motion for re-hearing the case brought by fishermen's associations in which the court elaborated in particular about such things as the relationship between treaty rights and conservation that had been more implicit in the first decision.

See also

• Exclusive Economic Zone
  Exclusive Economic Zone
  Under the law of the sea, an exclusive economic zone is a seazone over which a state has special rights over the exploration and use of marine resources, including production of energy from water and wind. It stretches from the seaward edge of the state's territorial sea out to 200 nautical...
  
  
• The Canadian Crown and First Nations, Inuit and Métis
  The Canadian Crown and First Nations, Inuit and Métis
  The association between the Canadian Crown and Aboriginal peoples of Canada stretches back to the first interactions between North American indigenous peoples and European colonialists and, over centuries of interface, treaties were established concerning the monarch and aboriginal tribes...
  
  

Canadian Aboriginal case law

• Numbered Treaties
  Numbered Treaties
  The numbered treaties are a series of eleven treaties signed between the aboriginal peoples in Canada and the reigning Monarch of Canada from 1871 to 1921. It was the Government of Canada who created the policy, commissioned the Treaty Commissioners and ratified the agreements...
  
  
• Indian Act
  Indian Act
  The Indian Act , R.S., 1951, c. I-5, is a Canadian statute that concerns registered Indians, their bands, and the system of Indian reserves...
  
  
• Section Thirty-five of the Constitution Act, 1982
  Section Thirty-five of the Constitution Act, 1982
  Section thirty-five of the Constitution Act, 1982 provides constitutional protection to the aboriginal and treaty rights of Aboriginal peoples in Canada. The section, while within the Constitution Act, 1982 and thus the Constitution of Canada, falls outside the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms...
  
  
• Indian Health Transfer Policy (Canada)
  Indian Health Transfer Policy (Canada)
  The Indian Health Transfer Policy of Canada, provided a framework for the assumption of control of health services by Aboriginal Canadians and set forth a developmental approach to transfer centred on the concept of self-determination in health. Through this process, the decision to enter into...
  
  

Further reading

• William C. Wicken, Mi'kmaq Treaties on Trial: History, Land and Donald Marshall Junior, University of Toronto Press, 2002

External links

• Full text for R v Marshall (No 1) via CanLII
• Full text for R v Marshall (No 2) via CanLII