Race in mainland European legal analysis: towards a European critical race theory

Abstract Critical Race Theory (CRT), an American legal theory, has been known for bringing race into left-wing legal analysis and for introducing power- and domination-related arguments into more traditional civil rights scholarship. So far, continental European legal literature has barely heeded CRT. This article seeks to assess CRT's potential contribution in analysing the relationship between race and law in the European context which is characterized by the invisibilization of race and by the narrow legal view of what constitutes racism. The case of French Republican colour-blindness illustrates the European model's contradictions with regard to the (non-)use of race. Instead of eliminating race, a more race-conscious legal analysis, as proposed by CRT in the United States, better addresses the lived experience of racism by people of colour in Europe.