The Moral Limits of the Law: Settler Colonialism and the Anti-Violence Movement

Abstract

Anti-violence advocates in the United States often find themselves working with the contradictions of struggling for a vision of justice within the constraints of the US criminal legal system. Perhaps the greatest contradictions may be felt by many Native advocates who understand the US to be a settler colonial state. This article explores these
contradictions and the limitations that this framework imposes on genuine attempts to address injustice. It also proposes a possible way out of a constraining paradox.