05/15/2026
The Board of Editors of the University of Miami Race & Social Justice Law Review is pleased to announce our recent issue publication of Volume 16, Issue 2. The online publication can be viewed at: https://race-and-social-justice-review.law.miami.edu/volume-16-issue-2/.
Issue II brings into focus a central tension shaping today’s legal landscape: a system that both recognizes injustice and yet resists fully confronting it. Across doctrinal, historical, and technological contexts, the pieces in this issue expose how legal frameworks can obscure truth, insulate power, and reproduce inequality. Taken together, they reflect what Professor Mario L. Barnes describes as an era of “retrenchment,” where longstanding structures of subordination adapt rather than disappear. Rather than directly confronting systemic harm, the law manages by limiting accountability while maintaining the appearance of justice and fairness.
The Articles examine the coercive dynamics of post-conviction plea bargaining, the enduring legacy of segregation through a modern case study of Jacksonville, Florida, and the evolving contours of qualified immunity in the Eleventh Circuit. In addition, two student notes further explore systemic inequalities in the criminal justice system, including the risks of blind reliance on forensic evidence and the constitutional implications of geofence warrants and digital policing. Together, these works reflect a broader theme: a legal system that manages, rather than resolves, structural harm.
Volume 16 concludes with an Afterword authored by Professor Mario L. Barnes, our founding faculty advisor and keynote speaker at the Journal’s 15th Anniversary Celebration. His reflections situate this volume within the Journal’s ongoing commitment to race-conscious, justice-drive scholarship and its role in confronting both longstanding and emerging forms of inequality in the American justice system. Volume 16, Issue 2 reaffirms the Journal’s commitment to publish scholarship that challenges, interrogates, and reimagines systems in pursuit of a more just future.
