LS06CH24-Gomez ARI 4 October 2010 18:47 Understanding Law and Race as Mutually Constitutive: An Invitation to Explore an Emerging Field Laura E. Gomez´ School of Law and Department of American Studies, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131; email:
[email protected] Annu. Rev. Law Soc. Sci. 2010. 6:487–505 Key Words First published online as a Review in Advance on racial stratification, social construction of race, colonialism, ideology, July 12, 2010 social control, critical race theory, race and ethnic relations The Annual Review of Law and Social Science is online at lawsocsci.annualreviews.org Abstract This article’s doi: This article argues that law and race coconstruct each other. The idea 10.1146/annurev.lawsocsci.093008.131508 that race is socially constructed has become widely accepted, and stud- Copyright c 2010 by Annual Reviews. ies increasingly have explored law’s role in shaping racial categories, Annu. Rev. Law. Soc. Sci. 2010.6:487-505. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org All rights reserved racial conflict, racial ideology, and the racial order. Fewer studies have 1550-3585/10/1201-0487$20.00 utilized a well-developed concept of race to examine how it has affected by University of California - Los Angeles (Young Research Library) on 09/15/11. For personal use only. legislation, legal processes, legal ideology, and so forth. To explore how law and race are mutually constitutive, I draw on examples from a dozen monographs (all but one published since 1999) that are in-depth case studies of how law and race have interacted in diverse geographical re- gions over the past 400 years.