ABSTRACT

This chapter argues that law schools have a responsibility to educate students on racialisation and coloniality as both continue to influence knowledge construction as well as laws, policy making and enforcement (including legal practitioners’ interactions with people of colour). The canon that ‘all are equal before the law’ is a problematic perspective to start from, especially as racialisation itself carries within it an unjust hierarchy. It should also be noted that historically and contemporarily, law has often been used in a way that subverts its purported functions of justice and equality. Thus, we address the importance of centring a race-conscious critique as well as the impact that law schools could have upon their students and society, should they choose to adopt a decolonial approach to teaching and research.