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Myth and concealment at colonial law's foundations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2021

George Pavlich
George Pavlich*
Affiliation:
HM Tory Chair, Professor of Law and Sociology, University of Alberta, Canada
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

This paper provides an engagement with, and highlights the depth of, Peter Fitzpatrick's careful examination of myths that grounded modern law and its colonial instances. That grounding is shown to be premised on a concealment of basic contradictions behind fictions of a unified law, even though it only appears through negations of others. Intersecting patterns of marginalisation are shown to be constitutive of modern and colonial law, so it is not surprising that current protests should address a basic exclusionary racism that Fitzpatrick's work signalled. It concludes with some reflections on what his work might mean for three current debates.

Keywords

myth and lawmodern colonial lawdecolonising lawPeter Fitzpatricklegal pluralism
Type
Article
Information
International Journal of Law in Context , Volume 17 , Special Issue 1: Celebration of Peter Fitzpatrick and his Scholarship , March 2021 , pp. 28 - 31
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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