As a Law School, that thinks about law in context, it is our responsibility to think critically of racism as structural injustice and explore ways in which the law may be used to change this. This Black History Month we are collaborating with Essex Law School and Kent Law School to provide a Series of Student Talks on Race and the Law.

Each of these sessions will be a live webinar with discussants, and a Q&A at the end of the session. We’re encouraging students from across all three law schools to engage with these sessions.


Talk 1 | The Role of Race within the Legal System - hosted by Warwick Law School.

30 October 2020 | 17:00 - 18:30

The recording of this event is now available to view. If you cannot access YouTube, please use this link to view the recording.

Please also take a look at this Reading/Viewing/Listening List on 'Race and the Criminal Justice System' by Dexter Dias QC.

Information on Speakers and Event:

This session will focus on the way in which the criminal justice system deals with Black defendants. Barrister Dexter Dias has appeared in a number of high profile cases including inquests into deaths in custody and unlawful killings by the police. Dexter represented the family of Cherry Groce in a landmark inquest of national importance. Cherry was shot in the back by police in front of her children in her home. Her shooting led to the Brixton Riots. During the inquest Dexter challenged the police about their deficiencies in their operation and the jury, three decades after the shooting, returned a severely critical narrative verdict, confirming the serious police failures. Drawing on Dexter’s experience, we will examine how race affects, and infects, the criminal justice system.

Award-winning busybody, recovering academic and reforming social reformer, Dr Rob Berkeley is currently developing BlkOutUK.com, a community-owned media asset and collaborative leadership network for and by black queer men. He was Director of the racial justice think-tank Runnymede Trust 2009-14. Alongside his academic writing on education, social justice and community organizing, a recently appointed Simon Industrial Fellow at the University of Manchester, he has presented and co-produced short form documentaries, lectured across the UK and beyond, and written for The Guardian and The Independent on social justice and movement-building. Dr Berkeley was awarded an MBE in 2015 for services to equality.


Talk 2 | Borders Race and Public International Law - hosted by University of Essex Law School

The second session will deal with ways in the history of race and borders have impacted on the construction of Public International law and contemporary problems such as Windrush. Nadine El-Enany’s recent book (B)ordering Britain, will serve as a catalyst for challenging our understanding of the role public international law, state sovereignty, and the British empire continue to play on the development of law today. We will bring Nadine into conversation with Dexter Dias, has been involved in international trials in reparations such as the Herero case against Germany, Makau Mutua, who chaired Kenya’s Task Force on the Establishment of a Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation Commission, and Kinnari Bhatt, an expert on the Chagos Island dispute, to consider how the legacies of the British Empire influence rights and rights-holders today.

Event date and further details coming soon.


Talk 3 | Being Black in the Law School - hosted by Kent Law School

This session will be a retrospective look at the panellist’s experiences of being Black within law schools and the impact of interracial trauma on Black law students and what lessons they have for white allies in mitigating their privilege.

Event date and further details coming soon.