On the 14th of September 2026, the Critical Legal Pedagogies of Race and Empire Network (CLPRE) held its launch event at the University of Bristol and online. CLPRE was established as a collaborative initiative dedicated to advancing conversation, research, and teaching on race, empire, colonialism, and global justice within legal education. To do this, the network brings together academics, researchers, practitioners, and students. One of the main aims is to explore how law schools engage with the histories, legacies, and ongoing impacts of race and empire, while fostering the development of more inclusive and critically engaged legal curricula. I wrote about the network in a previous blog post or two.
The launch event was a warm and pleasant event. It featured keynote contributions alongside discussions on emerging pedagogical approaches, innovative teaching practices, and future directions for collaboration. We had a live Padlet to ensure simultaneous conversation and engagement during the sessions. Participants engaged in discussions about the opportunities and challenges of teaching race and empire in legal education and explored ways to strengthen connections between scholarship and pedagogy. Attendees noted that the event was inspiring, necessary, warm and generative.
A really valuable afternoon of conversation, challenge and connection — and I’m excited to see where the network goes next. Nick Cartwright
“the launch of this initiative made me feel supported in a very meaningful way.” Rohini Sen
We designed the launch event as a hybrid event to ensure broad and inclusive participation. This was especially important to us as the network welcomes individuals from all geographical locations and disciplinary backgrounds who are interested in transforming legal education through critical engagement with race, empire, and social justice. In this vein the refreshments consisted of non-alcoholic malt drinks – popular in West Africa – chin-chin – a sweet pastry snack – and plantain chips in 3 flavours: sweet, chilli and green. This was also in a small way a nod to an earlier post I wrote about decolonising catering in UK HE.
The launch opened with a welcome address by myself – Foluke Adebisi. In the opening address I noted how law schools fail to engage critically with the colonial foundations of contemporary injustices; thus, a deeper transformation of legal pedagogy is needed to challenge the structures and assumptions underpinning legal knowledge. I also acknowledged the challenges currently faced by scholars working in this field, emphasising the importance of community, collaboration, and the classroom as spaces of hope, resistance, and possibility. CLPRE responds to these concerns as a global network dedicated to fostering inclusive scholarship, innovative teaching, and flourishing futures. The full video of the address is available below.
After that, Dr Sahar Shah presented the results of the mapping exercise that we undertook prior to the launch event. Participants engaged critically and generously with the mapping exercise which examined current teaching and research practices and identified pedagogical strategies for embedding critical perspectives across legal curricula. Participants reflected on barriers to integration, including institutional constraints and limited resources, while emphasising the need for collaboration, resource sharing, mentorship, and innovative teaching practices. Dr Shah noted in her presentation proposals for practical initiatives to strengthen the field and support a global community of scholars and educators. CLPRE will be engaging critically and practically with these proposals. The full video of Dr Shah’s session is available below:
Chaired by Dr Mohsen al Attar, the roundtable was next and it explored innovative and critical approaches to teaching law through the lenses of race, empire, colonialism, and power.
Dr Rohini Sen reflected on the classroom as a “precast ecosystem,” arguing that students enter legal education with pre-existing assumptions about knowledge and authority that shape how critical ideas are received and taught.
Dr Nick Cartwright challenged the notion of the neutral law school, arguing that educational practices, standards, and structures inevitably distribute power and belonging.
Next, Professor Babatunde Fagbayibo highlighted the value of object-based learning in international law, demonstrating how artefacts, visual art, music, and other cultural objects can deepen students’ engagement with legal histories and contemporary global issues.
Finally, Professor Diamond Ashiagbor examined the labour law canon, questioning how legal doctrine is shaped by histories of colonialism and racial capitalism and considering how critical race and decolonial perspectives can be integrated into legal teaching.
Together, the panellists invited participants to rethink legal pedagogy in more reflective, inclusive, and transformative ways.
The full recording of the roundtable is available below.
Finally, the closing keynote was delivered by Professor Joel Modiri. Using South African constitutionalism as his context, Professor Modiri explored the tasks left for critical scholars of law against a backdrop of anti-intellectualism and racism. Through his project on “anticolonial visions of constitutionalism”, he demonstrated how Black South African scholars are surfacing the limits of liberalism and connecting more transnationally with critical scholarship and action. The full recording of his address is available below.
As you can see, the event was a success beyond what we even dreamed of. We are extremely grateful to everyone who made it possible.
If you would like to be involved with the work of CLPRE, subscribe to our network mailing list, check our website for updates, and actively engage with the network. We also have a call for blog posts out. We are inviting submissions for a special series of blog posts reflecting on the ideas, discussions, and possibilities emerging from our launch event. The suggested themes include posts on the current landscape of critical legal pedagogies of race and empire; anti-colonial and anti-racist approaches to teaching law; nontraditional use of music or film in teaching; thoughts on building communities of practice; and future directions for scholarship, teaching, and collaboration in this field. Click the link for more information and for how to submit.
We look forward to working with you in whatever way you choose to engage with the network. The launch of CLPRE confirmed to us the need and appetite for deeper conversations about race, empire, colonialism, and justice within legal pedagogies. This was demonstrated most profoundly in the number of sign-ups to the launch, engagement with the pre-launch activities, contributions across the day and subsequent interest in the network. We saw clearly on display and in practical terms the power of collective thinking, shared resources, and supportive communities in advancing the network’s vision. We are deeply grateful to our speakers, participants, and organising committee for helping to make the event such a thoughtful, energising, and hopeful occasion.
As CLPRE grows, we invite you to join us on this journey and help shape the conversations, scholarship, and teaching practices that will define the network’s future and the future of this planet.
