Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>International law’s silence on racial injustices functions as both a shield and a form of complicity. This silence offers refuge from the discomfort of confronting social injustices, while trapping individuals and institutions in their acquiescence to these injustices. Despite growing awareness of the persistence of racialization and racism, the discipline has largely evaded critical reflection on its role in sustaining these structuring forces. This volume interrogates the historical and contemporary entanglements of race and international law, advancing the argument that racialized structures are not anomalies but foundational to the discipline’s operation. The contributors explore multifarious ways the discipline perpetuates processes of racialization and race-making, reinforcing racially exclusionary forms of legal knowledge. Offering a nuanced critique of the discipline’s refusal to address its white supremacist roots and ongoing racial violence, it sheds light on the impact of epistemic violence within international law and the ongoing struggle for transformative racial justice. In this introductory chapter, the editors contextualize the evolving debate on race and international law, situating this text within a wider scholarly discourse and an anti-praxis movement. They detail the motivations behind the project, as well as the challenges they encountered in bringing it to fruition. Last, to aid readers in their engagement with this voluminous collection, they place each chapter in dialogue with one another, seeking to highlight the contributions each author makes.</jats:p>