Online Student Notes: Africana Legal Studies

Professor Angi Porter’s article from Volume 27.2, Africana Legal Studies: A New Theoretical Approach to Law & Protocol, introduces an innovative interdisciplinary approach to studying the stories of Law and African people. In her words, the work of African Legal Studies “centers the humanity and self-defined thoughts and actions of… Read More

Africana Legal Linguistics

Patricia Murphy-Geiss, Georgetown University Introduction Modern African systems of governance exist in the context of culturally diverse and multilingual societies. Despite this, most African law is written in Western languages. For example, the Angolan and Cabo Verdean constitutions are written in Portuguese; the Burkinabé, Central African Republic, and Chadian constitutions… Read More

MJRL Statement on SCOTUS Overturning Roe v. Wade

On Friday, the Supreme Court officially overturned Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Dobbs eradicates what has been the law of the land for nearly half a century: that the Constitution protects the fundamental right to an abortion. This decision has… Read More

Racial Disparities in the Legalized Marijuana Industry

Image of a white man piled with money bags and marijuana leaves next to a Black man with empty hands labeled “felon”[1] These days, it’s hard to overlook the explosion of cannabis retail stores on every corner, or the numerous cannabis billboards scattered along highways near the boarders… Read More

BLOG 3: Surveillance, Dark Sousveillance, & the Law

By: Rihan Issa, Executive Articles Editor, Vol. 27 Part 1 of the series discussed the argument in Simone Browne’s book, Dark Matters. She highlighted the importance of racializing surveillance as an important conceptual understanding of the way surveillance has been used to order society along racial lines. She argues that… Read More