He is a prominent academic in Canadian Constitutional Law and Aboriginal rights discourse.
Slattery holds a Doctorate of Law from Oxford University, a Bachelor of Civil Law (1968) from McGill University, and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours English) from Loyola College of Montreal.
Professor Slattery has been cited by the Supreme Court of Canada in more than a dozen decisions, including most of the important cases dealing with aboriginal rights.
His central thesis is that native Canadians (unlike those in many other countries) were never conquered and have inherent sovereignty from being the first occupiers of the land.
The Government of Canada has never acquired a legal or moral right to impose its sovereignty over them.