Race in the Shadow of Law

Race in the Shadow of Law offers a critical legal analysis of European responses to institutional racism. It draws connections between contemporary legal knowledge practices and colonial systems of thought, arguing that many people of colour experience the law as a part of a racial problem, rather than a solution, to racial injustice. Based on a critical legal ethnography of anti-racism work in Europe, and with an emphasis on the German context, the book positions Black and anti-racist perspectives at the centre, rather than the margins, of critically thinking through the intersection of race and law. Combining this ethnography with comparative legal analysis, discourse analysis and critical race theory, the book develops a critical discussion of the European legal frameworks aimed at regulating racism, and particularly institutional racism, in policy and policing. In linking this critique to the transformative potential of social movements, however, it goes on to examine the strategic and creative possibility of disrupting conventional modes of engaging, and resisting, law.

Eddie Bruce-Jones is based at Birkbeck School of Law, London, UK.

Introduction: Some Remarks on Ethnography, Race, Law and Unruliness Part 1. Between the Lines and at the Margins Chapter 1. Structural Racism and the Law in Europe Chapter 2. Transgression: Law and the Choreography of Race and Place Part 2. Colouring out of Bounds: Thinking Beyond Law Chapter 3. Smoke and Mirrors: Performing in the Theatre of the Court Chapter 4. The Politics of Remembrance: Narrating State Violence Chapter 5. Gender, Colonial History and Contemporary Social Movements Part 3. Unruly Work on Race and the Law Chapter 6. Towards a European Anti-Racism Epilogue: Living with the Dead