Kevin Gover Presents National Paper

Kevin Gover Kevin Gover, a professor with the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, presented a major paper at the National Native American Economic Policy Summit held at the Hyatt Regency Phoenix on May 15. The paper, "Legal Infrastructure and Economic Development," explores the creation of rules that will allow investors, entrepreneurs and other businesspeople to operate with tribes and on reservations. Gover states that very little has been written about the impact of legal reforms on economic development, that much of the literature deals with developing countries, and that tribes must deal with jurisdictional issues that nation-states do not experience. "The diversity of Indian Country is vast, and reforms that might work - and even those that have worked - for one tribe may tell very little about what will work for another tribe," Gover writes. He concludes that tribes must anticipate rules needed for expected business, must fully fund legal systems to implement and enforce laws, and should consider alternatives such as permitting state courts to hear reservation disputes. Read the paper here. Gover appeared on a panel on legal infrastructure along with Diane Enos, president of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, and Shawn Real Bird, tribal operations specialist for the Crow Tribe. The goal of the Summit was to identify federal policies that have successfully stimulated tribal economies as well as persistent barriers that can be addressed through policy enhancements. Eddie Brown, director of the American Indian Studies Program at ASU, was the facilitator for a session on Economic Policy, along with Jacqueline Johnson, executive Director of the National Congress of American Indians. The Summit was co-sponsored by several tribal and government entities, including the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs, the National Congress of American Indians, and the ASU American Indian Leadership & Policy Development Center, a transdisciplinary effort supported by the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, the ASU College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Mary Lou Fulton College of Education.