book cover of Decolonizing LawWindsor Law’s Sujith Xavier, Valarie Waboose, and Beverly Jacobs are among the editors of “Decolonizing Law: Indigenous, Third World and Settler Perspectives.”

Book examines legal decolonization

Law professors have published the first edition of a book centred around the decolonization of law from three unique perspectives. Published by Routledge, Decolonizing Law: Indigenous, Third World and Settler Perspectives studies the theory and practice of decolonizing law.

The book’s editors include Windsor Law professors Sujith Xavier, Valarie Waboose, acting dean Beverly Jacobs, and Osgoode Hall Law School professors Jeffery G. Hewitt and Amar Bhatia.

“Colonialism, imperialism, and settler colonialism continue to affect the lives of racialized communities and Indigenous Peoples around the world,” say the editors in their book description. “Law, in its many iterations, has played an active role in the dispossession and disenfranchisement of colonized peoples. Law and its various institutions are the means by which colonial, imperial, and settler colonial programs and policies continue to be reinforced and sustained.”

They suggest that law can also contribute to the dismantling of “colonial and imperial structures set up during the process of colonization.”

The book combines Indigenous, Third World, and settler perspectives to take up the effort of decolonizing law, both in practice and in theory. It does so as a means to distance, and to liberate the foundational theories of legal knowledge and academic engagement from the manifestations of colonialism, imperialism and settler colonialism.

Including contributions by scholars from the Global South and North, this book will be of interest to academics, students, and others interested in the legacy of colonial and settler law, and its transformation.

To purchase Decolonizing Law: Indigenous, Third World and Settler Perspectives, visit the publisher’s website.

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