PICS Public Panel. "Contemporary Slavery: Legislating, Litigating, and Organizing to Combat Slavery and Human Trafficking"

Co-chaired by: Rebecca Scott (Law/History) and Bridgette Carr (head of the clinic on Human Trafficking at the UM Law School).

The panel brings together legal specialists from France, Brazil, Argentina, and the United States to share their experience with action in this domain.

Leonardo Barbosa, staff attorney, Brazilian Chamber of Deputies, Michigan Grotius Research Scholar, UM Law School.

Bénédicte Bourgeois, Director of Litigation, Comité Contre l’Esclavage Moderne, Paris Marcelo Colombo, State Prosecutor with special responsibility in the area of human trafficking, Argentina

Marcelo Colombo, State Prosecutor with special responsibility in the area of human trafficking, Argentina

Carlos Henrique Haddad, Federal Judge, Brazil, Michigan Grotius Research Scholar, UM Law School

The term “slavery” has come to be used to describe modern forms of exploitation that, while not involving the ownership of persons as property, contain elements in common with chattel slavery. Legislators, litigators, judges, prosecutors and jurors now face the challenge of understanding what we mean by “slavery” in a modern context. How does one combat a practice that is widespread but often hidden, wrapped in layers of illegality but characterized by a term – “slavery”– whose primary meaning generally refers to a legally-recognized form of exploitation imposed upon persons of African descent until its abolition in the nineteenth century?

Co-sponsors: The Law in Slavery and Freedom Project; International Institute; Program in Race, Law & History; LACS; Institute for the Humanities; Human Trafficking Clinic (UM Law), PICS