This presentation will show how an effort to surmount America’s racist past has shaped the U.S. Supreme Court’s racial equality opinions. The speaker will argue that the Court has pursued “racial transition” in two main ways—“reckoning” with and “distancing” from the past. The talk will further reveal how the Court’s inadequate treatment of transitional justice values (accountability, redress, non-repetition, and reconciliation) has inhibited America’s transition from white supremacy.

About the speaker

Yuvraj Joshi will join the University of British Columbia Allard School of Law as an Assistant Professor in 2021. He is currently completing a doctoral degree in law at Yale University. He has published his work in several US law reviews and elsewhere, and is a commentator in media including The Washington Post, Slate Magazine, and World Politics Review. His latest article, “Racial Transition,” is forthcoming in the Washington University Law Review.