Racial Capitalism in the Civil Courts
122 Columbia Law Review 1243 (2022)
Georgia State University College of Law, Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2022-08
45 Pages Posted: 15 Jul 2022 Last revised: 9 Nov 2022
Tonya L. Brito
University of Wisconsin Law School; Institute for Legal Studies; Institute for Research on Poverty
Kathryn A. Sabbeth
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey - Rutgers Law School; University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill - University of North Carolina School of Law
Jessica Steinberg
George Washington University - Law School
Lauren Sudeall
Vanderbilt University - Vanderbilt Law School
Date Written: July 1, 2022
Abstract
This Essay explores how civil courts function as sites of racial capitalism. The racial capitalism conceptual framework posits that capitalism requires racial inequality and relies on racialized systems of expropriation to produce capital. While often associated with traditional economic systems, racial capitalism applies equally to nonmarket settings, including civil courts.
The lens of racial capitalism enriches access to justice scholarship by explaining how and why state civil courts subordinate racialized groups and individuals. Civil cases are often framed as voluntary disputes among private parties, yet many racially and economically marginalized litigants enter the civil legal system involuntarily, and the state plays a central role in their subordination through its judicial arm. A major function of the civil courts is to transfer assets from these individual defendants to corporations or the state itself. The courts accomplish this through racialized devaluation, commodification, extraction, and dispossession.
Using consumer debt collection as a case study, we illustrate how civil court practices facilitate and enforce racial capitalism. Courts forgo procedural requirements in favor of speedy proceedings and default judgments, even when fraudulent practices are at play. The debt spiral example, along with others from eviction and child support cases, highlights how civil courts normalize, legitimize, and perpetuate the extraction of resources from poor, predominately Black communities and support the accumulation of white wealth.
Keywords: Race, Access to Justice, Civil Justice, Civil Procedure, Courts, State Courts, Racial Justice
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Institute for Legal Studies ( email )
Madison
United States
Institute for Research on Poverty ( email )
1180 Observatory Drive
Madison, WI 53706
United States
Kathryn Anne Sabbeth

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey - Rutgers Law School ( email )
Newark, NJ
United States
HOME PAGE: http://https://law.rutgers.edu/bio/ks2017
University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill - University of North Carolina School of Law ( email )
Chapel Hill, NC
United States
Jessica Steinberg

George Washington University - Law School ( email )
2000 H Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20052
United States
Lauren Sudeall (Contact Author)
Vanderbilt University - Vanderbilt Law School ( email )
131 21st Avenue South
Nashville, TN 37203
United States
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