LLB104 Lecture 10: Lecture Notes Week 10 - Critical Race Theory
Document Summary
Crt examines laws" relationship with race, racism and power. Critique of liberalism especially concept of equality. Ideal of equality before the law ensures all people are regarded equally as legal subjects which obscures facts of racism. Equality operates as a universal norm" that only benefits some in society. Liberalism assumes legal equality but it is not particularly concerned with social equality. Legal neutrality or universality can hide racist assumptions and discriminatory effects e. g. mandatory sentencing. Even race-specific laws (e. g. native title) which attempt to benefit indigenous persons contain implicit assumptions and can be seen as reinforcing and perpetuating colonising practices. Queries the ability of the legal system to ever create a just society, given the wide tolerance of racism. Need to consider two kinds of violence in australian law: the founding violence that institutes and positions law and the violence that conserves, the one that maintains, confirms, insures the permanence and enforceability of law.
