Unmaking Colonial Law: Rethinking the Connections between Research and Justice

What is it about?

This chapter is about how law, race, and research are deeply connected—and why understanding that connection is essential for justice. It argues that law has played a major role in creating and maintaining racial inequality, by defining categories of people, regulating citizenship, controlling land, and shaping social hierarchies. Yet, legal research often ignores or misunderstands this history, leading to incomplete or harmful analyses of justice and inequality.

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Photo by Mathew Schwartz on Unsplash

Photo by Mathew Schwartz on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Academic research itself is not neutral, as it can reproduce the same power structures it studies if it doesn’t critically reflect on its methods and assumptions. To address this, scholars must "decolonise" legal research, meaning they should challenge colonial ways of thinking, include diverse knowledge systems, and rethink how knowledge is produced. In essence, to do legal research that makes a difference, we must confront how race, power, and colonial history shape both the law and the way we study it.