Making Justice

One of the Virginia tribes that gained federal recognition in 2018 was the Upper Mattaponi. With Good Reason producer Lauren Francis visited the Upper Mattaponi Chief Frank Adams and spoke with him about this historic step forward for tribal sovereignty in Virginia. 

After our producer Lauren visited with Chief Adams, she sat down with Savannah Baber. Savannah is the Coordinator for Virginia Indian Programs here at With Good Reason’s home, Virginia Humanities. She descends from both the Chickahominy Tribe of Virginia and the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina and she’s spent years digging into the complexities and potential of tribal governance.

What makes a court a court? Most people might answer something like this: there’s a judge with legal training, who makes a judgment, and if you don’t follow their judgment, you get punished. David Law (University of Virginia) says that, actually, none of that is required for a court. That’s how the American courts work, but all over the world there are courts that operate very differently.

Building a court system is difficult under any circumstances. There’s a lot to decide. In communities that have suffered intense violent conflicts–like Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, or Kosovo after the war of the 1990s–creating a court system is both essential and particularly fraught. Christie Warren (William & Mary) has worked all over the world as a facilitator helping post-conflict zones design legal and justice systems.