ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the legal transregional approach applied to conceptualize 'race' as transregional inequality and the central role of law in this regard. It presents some articulations between law and 'race' in Latin America as conditioning racial discourses, social hierarchies, and inequalities under European rule. The chapter focuses on the legal component of racial inequality regimes and particularly on the continuities/discontinuities after regime shifts. It applies to deconstruct the successive regimes of truth that covered legal discrimination and racial inequalities in Latin America until the 1990s. The chapter aims to expose the crucial role that law played in the racialization of society under colonial rule, and the continuities of such a role throughout the twentieth century. It draws on data and reflections derived from a wider research project on interdependent inequalities affecting Afro-descendants in South America conducted over the past five years.
