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This lecture explores how legislators and regulators have remained silent on issues of structural injustice, failing to address deeply embedded systemic inequities that have long disadvantaged low-income communities worldwide. Structural injustice arises in contexts where power, information, and economic asymmetries enable certain actors to dominate or exploit others—while the state, through inaction or neglect, allows these injustices to persist. Examples of structural injustices can be found across the globe: from the hazardous conditions of social housing, tragically exemplified by the Grenfell Tower fire in London, to the devastating health and economic toll of environmental degradation in places like Louisiana’s Cancer Alley and Italy’s Terra dei Fuochi. Similarly, the exploitation of agricultural laborers and in the garment industry worldwide reveals how systemic inequalities are maintained through a combination of corporate practices and regulatory indifference.

This lecture examines the complex dynamics between citizens and the state, focusing on power imbalances, the role of legal and social structures in reinforcing these disparities, and how private actors have leveraged state inaction to cause long-term physical, psychological, and socioeconomic harm. Arguing for a fundamental rethinking of legal frameworks and regulatory enforcement, the lecture challenges the traditional focus on individual responsibility and instead calls for a shift toward systemic solutions.

Bio:

Sofia Ranchordás is a Full Professor of Administrative Law at Tilburg Law School. She also holds a part-time appointment as a Professor of Public Law, Innovation, and Sustainability at Luiss Guido Carli in Rome. In 2022, she was awarded a five-year NWO-Vidi project to conduct research on vulnerability in the automated state from a comparative perspective. Prof. Ranchordás is interested in the power asymmetries between government and citizens, how digital technology can exacerbate or create new vulnerabilities in the interactions between citizens and governments, and how to empower individuals either through more empathic approaches to law or to technology. Her scholarship has been published in leading law journals, such as Computer Law & SecurityÌý²¹²Ô»åÌýDuke Law Journal, as well as with Oxford University Press and Cambridge University. Ranchordás’ book Introduction to Law and Regulation, 2nd edition (with Karen Yeung) was published in 2024 with Cambridge University Press.