FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) – A Navajo Nation legislator is pushing to raise the qualifications for tribal Supreme Court justices, prompting concern that tribal sovereignty would diminish and applicants would be less focused on Navajo law if the proposal is approved.

Russell Begaye has sponsored legislation to require justices on the country's largest American Indian reservation to have a law degree and be licensed by the state bar association. Tribal law now calls for a bachelor's degree and membership in the Navajo Nation Bar Association.

Begaye said the changes would produce more well-rounded justices and position the Navajo Nation to adopt a federal law that gives tribes increased sentencing authority if it chooses. A Tribal Council committee he serves on approved the bill Monday.

“The argument for not increasing the qualification is very weak,” he said. “I think it's time that we raise the bar for these critical positions on our nation.”

The tribe's Judicial Branch has criticized the proposal, saying it has successfully created a unique tribal court system that increasingly relies on traditions and customs, and a nonadversarial way of solving disputes. To mandate state bar licenses would turn the focus from being well versed in Navajo language and culture to expertise in external laws, said Chief Justice Herb Yazzie.

“We oversee a living tribal justice system reflecting the importance of our tribal community, not a borrowed state or federal system in which our culture is merely anthropological speculation,” Yazzie said.

Officials in the Judicial Branch want the proposal delayed to give the tribal bar association a chance to survey its members and find out how many would meet the qualifications. They've also suggested it be amended to require that only two justices on the three-person panel meet the qualifications and to allow two years to obtain state bar membership.

The proposal doesn't apply to the tribe's District Court judges.

Retired Navajo Associate Justice Raymond Austin is advocating for a mix of state-licensed and non-state licensed attorneys on the Navajo bench. Having all state-licensed attorneys on the tribal Supreme Court might look good to non-Indians, he said, but it wouldn't sit well with Navajos.

“It is far more important to have judges who speak the Navajo language and are fluent in Navajo culture on the bench than non-Navajo speaking judges (with a lack of cultural knowledge) because it is the use of Navajo customary law which distinguishes the Navajo courts from state and federal courts,” he said.

Carl Artman, an American Indian law professor at Arizona State University, sees the benefits of increased qualifications particularly when tribal judges are dealing with matters involving non-Indians. Tribal court systems no longer are deciding only internal matters like family and land disputes, he said. They also are involved in criminal proceedings, and economic development and contract disputes, he said.

“This is one of those little compromises you have to make,” he said. “It is not an intrusion on sovereignty. It is something you're accepting eyes wide open, accepting explicitly, saying, `We want to make those changes to make our tribe more amendable to – fill in the blank.”'

Begaye used the federal Tribal Law and Order Act signed into law last year to support the proposed qualifications. Under the federal law, the sentencing authority for tribes increased from one year to three years for a single crime. But sending people to jail for longer periods means that tribes first must provide public defenders, establish or update criminal codes and have law-trained judges.

Yazzie questioned the reliance on the federal law, saying the drafters of that law abandoned a state-bar licensure requirement for tribal judges in recognition of tribal bar memberships. The Supreme Court justices also do not sentence convicted offenders. Rather, they hear appeals from the district court and issue final decisions in cases.

Yazzie has a law degree, but Associate Justice Eleanor Shirley, whose permanent appointment to the bench has not been confirmed by Tribal Council, does not. A third position on the Supreme Court is vacant.

Begaye argues that more Navajos graduating from law school would return to practice on the reservation and in the court system if his bill passes. He said the qualifications support decision-making based on the law, rather than a set of traditional Navajo laws he called capricious. The full council could take up the measure during its fall session next month.

“I believe that person that has that kind of education and experience that comes with it will be in a better position to shape and mold the laws of the Navajo Nation,” Begaye said.