Can the law deliver racial justice?

04/22/24 • 51 min

Racial justice is never far from the headlines, but, although the ideals of the legal system such as fairness and equality seem allied to the struggle, campaigners have been all too often let down by the system.

In this episode Jess Miles and Bharat Malkani, author of ‘Racial Justice and the Limits of the Law’, talk through cases like those of the Colston Four and Shamima Begum, to explore this paradox and establish where change is possible.

Bharat Malkani is Reader in Law at Cardiff University. His research connects human rights with criminal justice, with a particular focus on racism, miscarriages of justice and the death penalty. Follow him on Twitter: @bharatmalkani.

Find out more about the book: https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/racial-justice-and-the-limits-of-law

The full transcript of the podcast is available here: https://www.transformingsociety.co.uk/2024/04/22/podcast-can-the-law-deliver-racial-justice/

Timestamps:

01:11 - How does the Colston Four case illustrate the relationship, and the paradox, between racial justice and the law?

04:31 - How do six concepts from critical race theory explain the ways the law is limiting when it comes to racial justice?

36:43 - What is anti-racist lawyering and is it possible within the system?

42:16 - There are structural limits everywhere, not just in law. How does EDI relate to this and what should we think about?

46:40 - If we are concluding that the law is too limited to achieve racial justice, what is there to learn and where can change be made?

Intro music:

Cold by yoitrax | @yoitrax

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Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License

creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US

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Find out more about the book: https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/racial-justice-and-the-limits-of-law

The full transcript of the podcast is available here: https://www.transformingsociety.co.uk/2024/04/22/podcast-can-the-law-deliver-racial-justice/

Timestamps:

01:11 - How does the Colston Four case illustrate the relationship, and the paradox, between racial justice and the law?

04:31 - How do six concepts from critical race theory explain the ways the law is limiting when it comes to racial justice?

36:43 - What is anti-racist lawyering and is it possible within the system?

42:16 - There are structural limits everywhere, not just in law. How does EDI relate to this and what should we think about?

46:40 - If we are concluding that the law is too limited to achieve racial justice, what is there to learn and where can change be made?

Intro music:

Cold by yoitrax | @yoitrax

Music promoted by www.free-stock-music.com

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License

creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US

Follow the Transforming Society blog to be told when new articles and podcasts publish: https://www.transformingsociety.co.uk/follow-the-blog/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Previous Episode

Should we be aiming to improve prisons, or abolish them?

In this episode, George Miller talks to the author of What are Prisons for?, prison inspector and visiting professor of law at Oxford Hindpal Singh Bhui, about why we lock so many people up.

Prison populations have increased hugely in the past fifty years and vast sums of money are spent to keep over 11.5 million people behind bars, so you might think there is overwhelming evidence that prison ‘works’.

However, hard evidence for this claim is lacking. ‘If we are to understand more about the purpose of prisons,’ Hindpal Singh Bhui argues, ‘we need to look much further and deeper than official statements and dominant narratives.’

Dr Hindpal Singh Bhui OBE is an Inspection Team Leader at HM Inspectorate of Prisons and a Visiting Law Professor at the Centre for Criminology, University of Oxford.

The full transcript of the podcast is available here: https://www.transformingsociety.co.uk/2024/04/10/podcast-should-we-be-aiming-to-improve-prisons-or-abolish-them/

Timestamps:

1:50 - What was your earliest impressions of prisons?

4:34 - What is your current role?

5:51 - What are prisons for day in and day out?

11:43 - Who gets sent to prison and why they get sent to prison?

16:15 - Do you think that the abolitionist position helps take the debate forward?

20:12 - How do you begin to have a mature debate about change?

24:36 - Are prisons a sort of epiphenomenon on top of deeper, wider social problems?

27:28 - Were there any things that you discovered where you came upon something surprising or enlightening?

30:10 - What is an example that you think is inspiring or points in a positive direction?

Intro music:

Cold by yoitrax | @yoitrax

Music promoted by www.free-stock-music.com

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License

creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US

Follow the Transforming Society blog to be told when new articles and podcasts publish: https://www.transformingsociety.co.uk/follow-the-blog/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Next Episode

Why history needs to be rewritten

History is a key battleground in our increasingly bitter contemporary culture wars. In the polarized debates over who we are, the cry of ‘You can’t rewrite history’ regularly goes up. And is regularly met with the counterclaim that history needs to be rewritten.

Virtually the only thing both sides can agree on is that the past matters. But why, and in what ways? And is there a route out of our current impasse? These are some of the questions tackled in this episode of the podcast, in which George Miller talks to Robert Gildea, emeritus professor of modern history at Oxford University, about his new book, What is History For?

Along the way, Robert also reflects on his own career as a historian and what it has taught him about the role of history in our present political reality.

Robert Gildea is Professor Emeritus of Modern History at the University of Oxford, and a specialist on French and European history in the 19th and 20th centuries. In 2003 he won the Wolfson Prize for History. Follow him on Twitter: @RobertGildea.

Find out more about the book: https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/what-is-history-for

The full transcript of the podcast is available here: https://www.transformingsociety.co.uk/2024/05/16/podcast-why-history-needs-to-be-rewritten/

Timestamps:

1:51 - Robert's attempts to convince his father that he was cut out for a career as a historian

6:18 - What drew you to history?

13:37 - What do historians actually do?

18:38 - What is the trajectory that historians normally follow?

22:40 - Why is history more complicated than a settled body of knowledge?

30:55 - Why history matters, and is still significant in the world today

42:17 - Is it possible to have a truly successful reckoning with the past?

Intro music:

Cold by yoitrax | @yoitrax