Decolonising the Law Reading List

On this page, we compile the reading list suggested by our speakers. We hope that this space serves two purposes. First, it is a repository of the relevant readings on different aspects of decolonisation gathered in one place. Second, we hope that by putting this in the public domain, we hope that those who are working on issues of decolonisation find a public space to either start or enrich their research.

- Almas, on behalf of the Decolonising the Law Discussion Group

Re-thinking EU Law: the value of a de-colonial approach (Prof. Iyiola Solanke)

• Miranda Fricker Epistemic Injustice: Power and the Ethics of Knowing (OUP 2007)
• M. Jackson Sow (2022) ‘Ukrainian Refugees, Race and International Law’s Choice Between Order and Justice.’ American Journal of International Law, 116 (4) 698-709. DOI: 10.1017/ajil.2022.56.
• Bhambra (2017) ‘The Current Crisis of Europe: Refugees, Colonialism, and the Limits of Cosmopolitanism’ European Law Journal Vol 23(6)
• Hesselink, M. W. (2022) ‘EU private law injustices’, Yearbook of European Law, Volume 41, Pages 83–116, https://doi.org/10.1093/yel/yeac005 
• Kantola, J., Elomaaki, A., Gaweda, B., Miller, C., Ahrens, P., Berthet, V., (2023) “It’s Like Shouting to a Brick Wall”: Normative Whiteness and Racism in the European Parliament American Political Science Review 117, 1, 184–199 
• Jan Orbie, Antonio Salvador M. Alcazar III, Anissa Bougrea, Szilvia Nagy, Alvaro Oleart, Jonalyn C. Paz, Rahel W. Sebhatu, Tiffany G. Williams, Izabella Wódzka, 'Editorial: Decolonizing Rather than Decentring ‘Europe’', (2023), 28, European Foreign Affairs Review, Issue 1, pp. 1-8, https://kluwerlawonline.com/journalarticle/European+Foreign+Affairs+Review/28.1/EERR2023001 
• Jivraj, S ‘Towards anti-racist legal pedagogy: a resource’ (SLSA 2020) 37. Available at: https://research.kent.ac.uk/decolonising-law-schools/ (esp. p24 on core subjects) 

Decolonial theory and legal studies (Prof. Lena Salaymeh)

• “Decolonial comparative law” (link – particularly the sections on decolonial theory and decolonial legal studies)
• “Women and Islamic law: decolonizing colonialist feminism) (link)
• “Comparing Islamic and international laws of war” (link)
• “Decolonial translation” (link)

Decolonisation and Legal Knowledge: An Anthropocene Judgments Experiment (Prof. Folúkẹ́ Adébísí)

• Adebisi, Foluke I. "The Sea Casts Its Net of Justice Wide: A Speculative Judgment for What Has Been Left to the Waters of Despair."  pp. 59-71 In Rogers, N. and Maloney, M. eds., 2023. The Anthropocene Judgments Project: Futureproofing the Common Law. Taylor & Francis.
• Adebisi, Foluke, Decolonisation and Legal Knowledge: Reflections on Power and Possibility. BRISTOL University Press, 2023.  
• Adebisi, Foluke. "Black/African Science Fiction and the Quest for Racial Justice through Legal Knowledge: How Can We Unsettle Euro-modern Time and Temporality in Our Teaching?." Law, Tech. & Hum. 4 (2022): 24.  
• Cuestas-Caza, Javier. "Sumak Kawsay is not Buen Vivir." Alternautas 5(1) (2018): 49-63. 
• Humphreys, David. "Rights of Pachamama: The Emergence of an Earth Jurisprudence in the Americas." Journal of International Relations and Development 20(3) (2017): 459-484.  
• Jenkins, Katy. "Unearthing Women's Anti‐Mining Activism in the Andes: Pachamama and the “Mad Old Women”." Antipode 47(2) (2015): 442-460. 

Colonial Realism: objects and statues, subjects and torts (Prof. Dan Hicks)

• Dan Hicks 2020. The Brutish Museums: the Benin Bronzes, colonial violence and cultural restitution. London: Pluto Press.
• Dan Hicks 2020. The UK government is trying to draw museums into a fake culture war. The Guardianhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/oct/15/the-uk-government-is-trying-to-draw-museums-into-a-fake-culture-war
• Dan Hicks 2021. Let’s Keep Colston Falling. Art Review. https://artreview.com/lets-keep-colston-falling/
• Dan Hicks 2021. Glorious Memory. In H. Carr and S. Lipscombe (eds) What is History Now? London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson., pp. 114-128.
• Dan Hicks 2021. Necrography: Death-Writing in the Colonial Museum. Journal of British Art Studies 19. https://doi.org/10.17658/issn.2058-5462/issue-19/conversation 
• Dan Hicks 2022. Can we imagine public art beyond ‘toxic monumentality’? Art Review. https://artreview.com/can-we-imagine-public-art-beyond-toxic-monumentality/
• Dan Hicks 2023. Declining Whiteness. In Onyekachi Wambu (ed.) Empire Windrush: Reflections on 75 Years & More of the Black British Experience. London: Hachette.
• Dan Hicks 2023. Are Museums Obsolete? Architectural Review https://www.architectural-review.com/essays/are-museums-obsolete
• Hartman, Saidiya 1997. Scenes of Subjection: Terror, Slavery, and Self-Making in Nineteenth-Century America. Oxford: OUP.
• Hartman, Saidiya 2008. Venus in Two Acts. Small Axe, vol. 12(2): 1-14.
• Hall, S. 1999. Unsettling ‘the heritage’, re-imagining the post-nation. Whose heritage?, Third Text 13(49): 3-13.
• Mbembe, Achille 2024. Brutalism: theory in forms. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
• Mirzoeff, Nicholas. 2023. White Sight. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
• Richards, T. 1993. The Imperial Archive: knowledge and the fantasy of Empire. London: Verso.
• Rothberg, Michael 2019. The Implicated Subject: beyond victims and perpetrators. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
• Sharpe, C. 2023. Ordinary Notes. London: Daunt
• Wynter, S. 1994. ‘No Humans Involved’: an Open Letter to My Colleagues. Forum NHL 1(1): 42–71.

Strategies for decolonising legal education (Dr. Rishika Sahgal)

• Folúkẹ́ Adébísí, ‘Decolonisation & the Law School: Initial thoughts’ (African Skies, 22 July 2019) <https://folukeafrica.com/decolonisation-the-law-school-initial-thoughts/>
• Folúkẹ́ Adébísí, Decolonisation and Legal Knowledge: Reflections on Power and Possibility (Bristol University Press 2023)
• Dave SP Thomas and Suhraiya Jivraj (eds), Towards Decolonising the University: A Kaleidoscope For Empowered Action (Counterpress 2020) <https://counterpress.org.uk/publications/towards-decolonising-the-university/>
• Mohsen al Attar and Shaimaa Abdelkarim, ‘Decolonising the curriculum in international law: entrapments in praxis and critical thought’ (2023) 34 Law and Critique 41 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10978-021-09313-y>
• Rishika Sahgal, ‘Decolonizing Criminal Law in India’ in Juan Tauri et al (eds), Routledge Handbook on Decolonizing Justice (Routledge 2023) <https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003176619-40/decolonizing-criminal-law-india-rishika-sahgal>