For the 21st General Congress of the International Academy of Comparative Law (IACL), I proposed ‘contemporary forms of slavery including causes and consequences’ as a topic, out of a sense of urgency. There is no denying the depth of human suffering faced by workers in the contemporary global economy, along global value chains and global care chains. Decades of experimentation have been in place to rethink the regulation of trade, foster corporate social responsibility and due diligence frameworks, and thicken the normative bases for a truly transnational labour law. But increasingly, the language of ‘modern slavery’ has been invoked. Slavery is a particularly weighty invocation, and immediately conjures the horrors of the centuries-long history of the Black Atlantic. But it became rather readily apparent that the usage was in many senses metaphorical. Distance was being taken not only from the notion of ‘chattel’ slavery, but also from any suggestion that the racial stratification of the contemporary world that has ensued from slavery as a global institution played a role. As a person of African descent, I found this jarring, at best. Could it be that the concept of ‘modern slavery’ was being drawn upon primarily as a rhetorical device? I also found it deeply concerning. What were we missing about the legacies of enslavement on the lives of those who continue to embody its racial subordination? In the 2020 summer of racial reckoning following George Floyd’s videotaped murder, our global community shut down by the Covid-19 pandemic was forced to witness and account for this persisting reality.

My own research has led me down the path of exploring the historical archives to understand better the early 20th century, ultimately colonial, bifurcation between slavery and forced labour. It also kindled my interest to understand better how slavery discourse is being deployed around the world. For the IACL this was a rare occasion where the person who proposed the topic was ultimately also selected for the general rapporteurship. I took this responsibility most seriously and built a questionnaire, included as an appendix to this volume, that sought explicitly to bring the law as it has related to Atlantic slavery in dialogue with invocations of the law of slavery in contemporary form. From the start, I sought to build a community of special national rapporteurs, and held a virtual meeting to discuss core themes and objectives. Once first drafts had been submitted and extensive comments were provided, I welcomed special national rapporteurs to participate in two instrumental scholarly gatherings.

The first generative event was a presentation that the Labour Law and Development Research Laboratory (LLDRL) curated at the Law and Society Association’s Annual Meeting in May 2022 in Lisbon. I was pleased to moderate a panel comprising the rapporteur on Barbados and St Vincent and the Grenadines, Professor Jason Hayes, who visited McGill as an O’Brien Fellow to the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism and the LLDRL in summer 2022, the rapporteur on Peru, Professor Laura Dehaibi, who was then the LLDRL Postdoctoral Fellow, the rapporteur on Ghana, Professor and Dean Julia Selman-Ayetey, who is also a doctoral candidate at McGill Faculty of Law, the rapporteur on Canada, Professor Yves Goguen, the rapporteur on Germany, Dr. Heiner Fechner, and one of the two rapporteurs on Sweden, Professor Niklas Selberg. We are grateful for the many thoughtful questions and comments from the audience, which enriched the final book.

The second gathering took place during the 21st General Congress of the IACL, held in Asunción in October 2022. In my capacity as general rapporteur, I was pleased to present the report to an engaged audience, with special presentations integrated throughout and offered by the four special national rapporteurs who were in attendance, on Canada, Ghana, Peru, and on the United Kingdom, Professor Shahrzad Fouladvand. We are all grateful to the IACL- appointed session chair, Professor Timothy Webster, who offered insightful comments and appreciated enthusiasm for our work.

It was meaningful to present our work on both sides of the Atlantic. Both in Portugal and in Paraguay, reckoning with the history and legacies of slavery remains nascent but inescapable. Participants in both events showed an appreciation for why it is necessary to be able to address slavery and the law both in international and comparative perspective, if we are to challenge an all too ready elision between historical and contemporary forms that leaves the legacies of slavery behind. We trust our work has helped to foster deepened understanding.

Throughout this process, I have been fortunate to have a superb team of researchers associated with the LLDRL at McGill University. This has been collective work, and the team has committed to carrying this project with great skill, professionalism and dedication. Professor Laura Dehaibi, was brought on board during her postdoctoral research fellow at the LLDRL early in the process as a co-editor of the volume. She provided stellar contributions to the co-authored general report. A team of dedicated research assistants were actively involved in keeping the numerous contributions organized, providing bibliographical support and in some cases providing editorial comments. I am pleased to acknowledge Navya Baradi (JD & BCL candidate), Anne-Raphaëlle Bolya (JD & BCL 2022), M. Adedayo Odusanya (JD & BCL 2024), Audrey Parent (JD & BCL 2023), Marc-Elder Piard (JD & BCL candidate) & Joscelyne Smith (LLM 2023). M. Adedayo Odusanya, then an LLDRL research assistant and cur-rently a law clerk at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, provided support throughout most of the project and was so engaged that his contributions are recognized as a co-editor of the volume. In the home stretch, Dr. Edward van Daalen, LLDRL postdoctoral research fellow 2023–2024, ably shouldered the lion’s share of the responsibility for finalizing the revised contributions for publication.

Finally, I acknowledge with gratitude the Insight Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, entitled “Slavery is not a Metaphor”, awarded under the October 2020 competition.

This work is the beginning of a much-needed conversation on the depths of human suffering in the world of work. This challenged world moment is a reminder that the ILO’s founding principle, that universal and lasting peace can only be achieved through social justice, is as urgently relevant now as it was in 1919.