Assistant Professor
Slavery and the Law, Critical Race Theory, and Black Life
New Chancellor Day Hall
3644 Peel Street
Room 517
Montreal, Quebec
Canada H3A 1W9
514-398-6643 [Office]
sarah.rileycase [at] mcgill.ca (Email)
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Biography
Dr. Sarah Riley Case is an Assistant Professor whose research and teaching focus on slavery and the law, Critical Race Theory, Black life, Third World Approaches to International Law, (TWAIL),听colonialisms, arts, and governing the natural world. She is the convener of the听. 听
Before joining 海角社区, she was a Fulbright Visiting Researcher at Harvard Law School鈥檚 Institute for Global Law and Policy. She served as a Special Advisor to the UN Independent Expert on Human Rights and International Solidarity. She taught as well at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law and at Osgoode Hall Law School.
Dr. Riley Case鈥檚 work crosses over law, history, conceptions of justice,听representations of nature,听and the arts. Her听publications include听听听(AJIL Unbound), where she explores overlapping Caribbean reparations claims for slavery, colonialism and climate change; and听鈥樷�� with Fr茅d茅ric M茅gret (forthcoming in Mohsen al Attar, Ata Hindi and Claire Smith, eds.,听Emancipating International Law: Confronting the Violence of Racialized Boundaries), which addresses how subaltern appeals to听jus cogens听norms, such as slavery, genocide and apartheid, are sidelined due to racial stratifications.
Other recent publications include听鈥樷�櫶�(Critical Legal Thinking), a textual and photographic conversation about dehumanization, the natural world, and praxes of being human in light of racial capitalism with Marie Petersmann and Juliana M. Streva;听鈥樷��,听where听she explores the Black radical tradition, historical erasure,听portraiture,听and the听politics of recognition in international law鈥檚 narratives听about women (in Immi Tallgren, ed.,听Portraits of Women International Law New Names and Forgotten Faces?);听and 鈥樷�� with Nataleah Hunter-Young鈥�(Canadian Art), which puts ten Black women poets, scholars, artists, and activists in conversation.鈥�
She was awarded the Canadian Association of Law Teachers scholarly paper award for her article,听听(Canadian Journal of Law and Society), where she considers qualities of protest, including Black presence, practicing care, and calling for abolition, inspired by Black feminism.
Sarah Riley Case collaborates with people working toward racial and ecological justice in the UN system, academic communities, and legal clinics. She has received awards and honours from the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, SSHRC,听Transnational Environmental Law听journal,听Canadian Association of Law Teachers,听and the American Society of International Law, among others.
Her artistic practice, specifically her photography, is often featured in her publications and those of others.
Education
- SJD, University of Toronto
- LLM, 海角社区 Faculty of Law
- Member of the Ontario Bar
- JD, Osgoode Hall Law School
- BA, 海角社区 and Universit茅 Paris-Sorbonne
Past Employment
- Boulton Fellow, 海角社区, Faculty of Law
- Task Force on Legal Aid Ontario Modernization, Black Legal Action Centre
- Executive, Black Canadian Studies Association听
- Adjunct Professor, University of Toronto Faculty of Law
- Adjunct Professor, Osgoode Hall Law School
- Fulbright Visiting Researcher, Harvard Law School
- Special Advisor, UN Independent Expert on Human Rights and International Solidarity
- Visiting Academic, Melbourne Law School
- Counsel, Law Commission of Ontario
- Project Officer and Legal Specialist, International Development Law Organization
- Equity Advisory Group, Law Society of Ontario
- Board of Governors, Canadian Association of Black Lawyers
- Associate Lawyer, Koskie Minsky LLP
- Judicial Law Clerk, Ontario Superior Court of Justice
Areas of Interest
Colonialisms, legal history, international and domestic law formations, Black Studies, Critical Race Theory, queer theory, Third World Approaches to International Law, Indigenous legal orders, radicalism and law reform, the natural world, arts.
Publications
- The Inhuman as Refusal听(with Marie Petersmann and Juliana M. Streva) (2024) Critical Legal Thinking
- The Colour of Jus Cogens听(with Fr茅d茅ric M茅gret) in Mohsen al Attar, Ata Hindi and Claire Smith, eds,听Emancipating International Law: Confronting the Violence of Racialized Boundaries听(OUP, forthcoming)
- To Protest for Black Life during the Pandemic: Resistance and Freedom in a Settler State听(2024) 38:3 Canadian Journal of Law and Society 316听(awarded the CALT Scholarly Paper Prize)
- Looking to the Horizon: The Meanings of Reparations for Unbearable Crises听(2023) 117 AJIL Unbound 49
- Homelands of Mary Ann Shadd听in听Immi Tallgren, ed,听Portraits of Women International Law New Names and Forgotten Faces?听(OUP, 2023) (book awarded the Certificate of Merit for a Preeminent Contribution to Creative Scholarship from the American Society of International Law)
- Redressing Historical Responsibility for the Unjust Precarities of Climate Change in the Present听(with Julia Dehm) in Benoit Mayer and Alexander Zahar, eds,听Debating Climate Law听(CUP, 2021)
- Thoughts of Liberation听(with Nataleah Hunter-Young)听Canadian Art听(June 17, 2020)
