ABSTRACT
This chapter reflects on the authors’ efforts towards decolonising their teaching on the “contemporary issues in property law” module, a core module formerly taught on all qualifying law degree programmes at Queen’s University Belfast. As a unique space of contested coloniality where the histories and realities of colonialism permeate and are camouflaged in the law curriculum, moving towards decolonising teaching law in Northern Ireland is a project of renewed importance. This research is based on the authors’ experience of attempting to decolonise the curriculum of this property law module as white critical legal scholars in an almost exclusively white classroom where, nonetheless, the legacy and current realities of racialising identity politics locally are hidden in plain sight. As “outsiders” in NI, Kramer and Panepinto have endeavoured to teach in a way that presents law in context, exposes students to the ways in which various colonial power structures operate both historically and contemporarily, and to foster their critical thinking skills. The chapter is divided into three parts: Part 1 outlines the pedagogical context, the CIPL module, and authors’ positionality and Parts 2 and 3 reflect on the authors’ experiences of teaching “Colonialism/Land Grabbing” and “People as Property/Slavery”.
