Abstract
This research project explores the potential input of decoloniality in legal scholarship to achieve equality, justice and fairness in Europe. The decolonial framework reveals how dominant worldviews - shaped primarily by European values, norms, and sources of knowledge - continue to marginalise perspectives from former colonies. This project seeks to redress this inequity in law by giving a voice to these marginalised perspectives and promoting the need to compensate for their peripherality. In Europe, decolonial approaches are gaining traction, including in legal studies. Contributing to this emerging field, this research identifies "European postcolonial cases" in private international law (PIL), involving state, customary, or religious laws from former colonies, in personal and family matters. These have not yet been studied via decolonial lens. Additionally, methods for conducting decolonial legal research in Europe remain largely unexamined. Addressing both these gaps, this study develops a "postcolonialities-inclusive" toolbox concerning PIL theory, rules and reasoning in Europe to deal with European postcolonial cases, using Belgium as a case study. This toolbox is based on the identification and application of decolonial legal research methods, while considering the limits thereto in a European context. By doing so, the research not only reimagines the handling of European postcolonial cases in PIL but also sets a precedent for decolonial legal scholarship in Europe.
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