GHISLAIN OTIS is currently at the Civil Law Section of the University of Ottawa where he holds the tier 1 Canada Research Chair on Legal Diversity of Indigenous Peoples. He has directed several major international research projects on human rights, indigenous peoples and legal pluralism. He is also the author or co-author of several books on indigenous peoples and legal pluralism. Professor Otis is the director of a major international research partnership funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Agence universitaire de la Francophonie. The project, entitled État et culture juridiques autochtones: un droit en quête de légitimité/The State and Indigenous Legal Cultures: Law in Search of Legitimacy, brings together academic and indigenous researchers or partners from seven countries (Africa, Canada, South Pacific) working on a comparative study of the management of legal pluralism in postcolonial states.