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Biography

Dr. Sarah Annabella Riley Case is an Assistant Professor whose research and teaching focus on slavery and the law, colonialisms, critical race theory, Black studies, Indigenous critique, Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL), arts, and governing the natural world. She is the convenor of the .Ìý

Before joining Â鶹´«Ã½ÍøÕ¾, she was a Fulbright Visiting Researcher at Harvard Law School’s Institute for Global Law and Policy. She served as a Special Advisor to the UN Independent Expert on Human Rights and International Solidarity. She taught as well at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law and at Osgoode Hall Law School.

Dr.ÌýRiley Case’s work crosses over law, history, conceptions of justice, representations of nature, and the arts. Her publications include ‘ (Canadian Journal of Law and Society), winner of the Canadian Association of Law Teachers scholarly paper award, where she considers qualities of protest, including Black presence, practicing care, and calling for abolition, inspired by Black feminism. As well, ‘’ with Frédéric Mégret (in Mohsen al Attar, Ata Hindi and Claire Smith, eds., E³¾²¹²Ô³¦¾±±è²¹³Ù¾±²Ô²µ International Law: Confronting the Violence of Racialized Boundaries), which addressesÌýhowÌýBlack, Indigenous and Third World appeals to jus cogens norms, such as slavery, genocide and apartheid, are sidelined due to racial stratifications;  (AJIL Unbound), where she explores overlapping Caribbean reparations claims for slavery, colonialism and climate change;Ìýand ‘’ (forthcoming in TWAILR Dialogues), where she and Usha Natarajan explore how racialization and ecology are intertwined in colonial harms and calls for redress.

She is currently working on converting a paper written for grassroots organizations into a book focused on exceeding settler carceral violence, including narratives of harm, namely Ìý(CNERJ, 2025). She is alsoÌýworking on projects relating to self-defence as a liberatory practice and the possibilities for reparatory justice in the Caribbean and Nova Scotia.

Other recentÌýpublications includeÌý‘’,ÌýwhereÌýshe explores the Black radical tradition, historical erasure,Ìýportraiture,Ìýand theÌýpolitics of recognition in international law’s narrativesÌýabout women (in Immi Tallgren, ed., Portraits of Women International Law New Names and Forgotten Faces?);Ìýand ‘’ with Nataleah Hunter-Young (CanadianÌýArt), which puts ten Black women poets, scholars, artists, and activists in conversation.

Dr. Riley Case collaborates with people working toward racial and ecological justice in the UN system, academic communities, grassroots organizations, and legal clinics. She has received awards and support for her research from theÌýOpen Society Foundations, Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, Fonds de Recherche du Québec, SSHRC,ÌýCanadian Association of Law Teachers,Ìýand the American Society of International Law, among others.

Her artistic practice, specifically her photography, is featured in her publications and those of others.

Areas of Interest

Colonialisms, legal history, international and domestic law formations, Black Studies, Critical Race Theory, queer theory, Third World Approaches to International Law, Indigenous law, Indigenous critique, radicalism and law reform, the natural world, arts.

Education

• SJD, University of Toronto
• LLM, Â鶹´«Ã½ÍøÕ¾ Faculty of Law
• Member of the Ontario Bar
• JD, Osgoode Hall Law School
• BA, Â鶹´«Ã½ÍøÕ¾ and Université Paris-Sorbonne

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Publications

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• The Colour of Jus Cogens (with Frédéric Mégret) in Mohsen al Attar, Ata Hindi and Claire Smith, eds, E³¾²¹²Ô³¦¾±±è²¹³Ù¾±²Ô²µ International Law: Confronting the Violence of Racialized Boundaries (OUP, 2026)
• Race, Ecology, Nature and International Law: A Dialogue with Sarah Riley Case (with Usha Natarajan) TWAILR: Dialogues #19/2025
• Beyond Settler Carcerality: Abolition and Reparatory Justice (2025) Canadian Network for Equity and Racial Justice (CNERJ)
• The Inhuman as RefusalÌý(with Marie Petersmann and Juliana M. Streva) (2024) Critical Legal Thinking
• To Protest for Black Life during the Pandemic: Resistance and Freedom in a Settler StateÌý(2024) 38:3 Canadian Journal of Law and Society 316Ìý(awarded the CALT Scholarly Paper Prize)
• Looking to the Horizon: The Meanings of Reparations for Unbearable CrisesÌý(2023) 117 AJIL Unbound 49 (relied on to frame a special issue on reparations in AJIL 2025)
• Homelands of Mary Ann ShaddÌýinÌýImmi Tallgren, ed,ÌýPortraits of Women International Law New Names and Forgotten Faces?Ìý(OUP, 2023) (book awarded the Certificate of Merit for a Preeminent Contribution to Creative Scholarship from the American Society of International Law)
• Redressing Historical Responsibility for the Unjust Precarities of Climate Change in the PresentÌý(with Julia Dehm) in Benoit Mayer and Alexander Zahar, eds,ÌýDebating Climate LawÌý(CUP, 2021)
• Thoughts of LiberationÌý(with Nataleah Hunter-Young)ÌýCanadian ArtÌý(June 17, 2020)