Decolonizing Law

In the law department, lecturers and staff aren’t that diverse in terms of race. Most of them are white and not many of them are from different countries. It is obvious that there are not any staff from Asia and there are only a few black staff members. This shows that the law school is not diverse enough.

For students, there are also insufficient Asian and black students. Most students are from England or English-speaking countries. For instance, in year 2, there are only about 20 Asians within the whole cohort. This shows that there is not a balance between different races.

The University strongly believes that diversity and equity is essential within the school, yet this issue is not obvious in the law school because it is not diverse in this faculty. It is not foreseeable that the law school can deal with diversity as students find it difficult to network and gain knowledge from people coming from different countries.

People from different backgrounds have different kinds of experiences so they have different insights. For instance, I come from Hong Kong and the jurisdiction is just similar to UK and Wales although Hong Kong is using the same legal system as UK does. Whenever course mates from foreign countries ask me anything about Hong Kong jurisdiction, they feel surprised to know something new and enrich themselves with a more well-rounded knowledge on legal systems from different countries. This implies that a diverse schooling environment is very important so as to enrich everybody’s point of view.

It has been reported that Exeter Law School is going to move away from a white curriculum, which is also a plan affecting the Russell Group institution’s humanities department. Academics are told that they should integrate a more diverse curriculum into the existing modules taught in the law school. Lecturers must consider how they are widening the epistemological and ontological horizons by moving away from a white, Eurocentric curriculum.

If the staff do not make the change, the legal course will not receive any accreditation. Thus, needs of all students should be considered including the ones studying in different locations, different cultural/ educational backgrounds, with additional learning needs when they design and update modules. For instance, I am taking remote study this year. I am able to learn the course content at my home country in a different time zone instead of following British Summer Time. It is more flexible and it considers my needs as sometimes it would be too late to have lessons in BST 5:00pm onwards. This shows that my needs are recognised by the school.

Last but not least, it is essential for the academics to recognise the problem students are facing. It is obvious that the law school does not recognise how diverse the school is and it is exciting to see that the school is moving away from a white-centric curriculum.