Racial Justice (LAWS90320)

In this subject, we provide students with opportunity to think deeply about the manner in which Australian law operates in relation to racialised communities in Australia, including producing categories of race and differentially distributing power and resources to shape the life chances of people and communities. We will consider popular understandings of race and racism in Australia today, and how these operate as sites of change and contestation. We will consider the role of law in racial justice movements.  

As a reading group community, we will engage with a range of writing from people concerned with racialisation across disciplines, to consider how communities have experienced law as both as an instrument producing racist outcomes, and a tool for potential liberation. We will learn from leading thinking on decolonisation, intersectionality, abolition, anti-racism and contingent collaboration. We will use these resources as tools to interrogate legal texts, including influential Australian judgements and legislation, and also to imagine futures in relation to racial justice. 

This subject will be taught as a reading-group with focus on facilitated group discussion and close-reading of assigned texts. All students are encouraged to consider this subject; for some it intends to expose formerly unseen aspects of the operation of law, and for others it intends to give new language and tools to familiar experiences of law. 

Intended learning outcomes

Upon completion of this subject students should be able to:  

• Critically discuss the history of race, whiteness and racism in Australia in relation to law and public power today.
• Critically interrogate the relationship between politics of racial justice and Indigeneity in Australia.
• Evaluate the role of law in maintaining constructs of race in Australia, as well as the utility of law and legal institutions in racial justice struggles, with close attention to key scholarly contributions and debates
• Effectively and respectfully participate in and facilitate group discussion on issues of law, race and justice.
• Critically analyse primary legal source texts through a racial justice lens.

Generic skills

• Work collaboratively as part of a community.
• Legal research capabilities .
• Technical judgement writing.
• Facilitation of group discussion.
• Reflective writing and critical analysis.
• Written and verbal communication