Uploaded November 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 hours ago
This panel explores how colonialism—past and present—continues to shape law, democracy, and global power. These papers examine the constitutional contradictions in U.S. land and housing law, the suppression of Hawaiian and
Japanese language rights as tools of empire, and the ways corporate structures perpetuate colonial hierarchies under the guise of globalization. A final paper traces how U.S. foreign policy enforces racialized loyalty tests, targeting communities of color to uphold imperial interests. Taken together, these contributions highlight how law both entrenches colonial domination and provides openings for struggles toward cultural survival, sovereignty, and multiracial democracy.
•Alvin Padilla-Babilonia, Assistant Professor of Law, Villanova University School of Law, The Constitutional Politics of Housing and Land Rights
•MJ Palau-McDonald, Assistant Professor of Law, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa William S. Richardson School of Law, Portraits of Sedition and Savagery
•Natasha Nandlal Varyani, Professor of Law, Roger Williams University School of Law, Corporate Colonialism: Public-Private Partnerships perpetuating Existing Supremacist Hierarchies
•Leo Yu, Assistant Professor of Law, University of Massachusetts School of Law, Racialized Allegiances
•Moderator: Joseph Berra, Human Rights in the Americas Project Director, The Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA in Los Angeles, UCLA School of Law
This panel explores how colonialism—past and present—continues to shape law, democracy, and global power. These papers examine the constitutional contradictions in U.S. land and housing law, the suppression of Hawaiian and
Japanese language rights as tools of empire, and the ways corporate structures perpetuate colonial hierarchies under the guise of globalization. A final paper traces how U.S. foreign policy enforces racialized loyalty tests, targeting communities of color to uphold imperial interests. Taken together, these contributions highlight how law both entrenches colonial domination and provides openings for struggles toward cultural survival, sovereignty, and multiracial democracy.
•Alvin Padilla-Babilonia, Assistant Professor of Law, Villanova University School of Law, The Constitutional Politics of Housing and Land Rights
•MJ Palau-McDonald, Assistant Professor of Law, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa William S. Richardson School of Law, Portraits of Sedition and Savagery
•Natasha Nandlal Varyani, Professor of Law, Roger Williams University School of Law, Corporate Colonialism: Public-Private Partnerships perpetuating Existing Supremacist Hierarchies
•Leo Yu, Assistant Professor of Law, University of Massachusetts School of Law, Racialized Allegiances
•Moderator: Joseph Berra, Human Rights in the Americas Project Director, The Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA in Los Angeles, UCLA School of Law
