Past Events
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Full Program |
View an Image Gallery Professor Christopher McCrudden continues his discussion of Slavery Against the Law on the UK Constitutional Law Group blog
This panel discussion will explore the phenomenon of illegal enslavement from the period of the contraband Atlantic trade in captives, highlighting the 1839 case of the schooner Amistad, to contemporary servitude, with a focus on recent decisions in the European Court of Human Rights and in the Community Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States.
The event will feature Prof. Ibrahima Thioub from the Université Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar, Senegal; Prof. Christopher McCrudden, Oxford University and William W. Cook Global Law Professor, Michigan Law; Prof. Rebecca Scott, History and Law, U-M; and Prof. Michael Zeuske, the University of Cologne, Germany. The panel will be chaired by Prof. Martha S. Jones, History, Department of Afroamerican and African Studies, and Law, U-M.
Full Program
"To get beyond racism, we must first take account of race" is the well-remembered phrase from Justice Harry Blackmun's opinion in the 1978
Bakke decision. Blackmun's view may remain controversial in debates about constitutional jurisprudence. But for historians of law it is axiomatic. In the generation since
Bakke, scholars have indeed taken account, mining legal culture's archives to explain the origins and endurance of race such that today race is at the core of interpreting the history of the Americas. A set of ideas that rely upon understandings of religion, culture, labor, biology, and politics, race has organized profound inequality and galvanized movements for social justice. Legal culture has been linked to slavery and its abolition, and race in turn has shaped the emergence of democratic states, imperialism, social welfare policy, and movements for civil and human rights. Legal historians have long debated the relationship of law to these broad themes while extending into the terrain of social history, exploring how race and law come together to shape ideas about home, family, marriage, gender, and sexuality.
Participants in "We Must First Take Account" will contribute to defining the field of race, law, and history for the next generation. The conference will build upon existing work to explore new scholarship in race, law and history. It features presentations from emerging scholars working at the intersection of these analytic categories. It will also encourage research that rethinks earlier frameworks, particularly that of the nation-state. Histories of race and law in transnational and comparative perspectives will be foregrounded through work across the Americas including North America, the Caribbean, Latin America, and Brazil. Senior scholars will provide discussion and commentary.
Papers address key questions from the field including: How have ideas about race shaped the evolution of legal culture? How has law produced ideas about race? How has legal scholarship incorporated race into its analysis? How has law been allied with or an obstacle to movements for social change? What kinds of strategies can be used to carry out comparative studies of race, law, and history?
The conference focuses on the work of emerging scholars. Panels will feature the pre-circulated papers of three emerging scholars and the commentary of two senior members of the field. This format relies upon pre-circulated papers to maximize audience engagement and leave ample time for discussion and questions. It also asks commentators to facilitate the broader discussion by first summarizing and then offering a critical assessment of each paper. Authors will be allowed a brief response time, but the discussion will move rapidly to a full exchange. The keynote and lunchtime plenary will provide an opportunity for senior scholars to reflect upon the evolution of and new directions in the field.