A Canadian appeals court decision on sentencing of Black defendants could provide a blueprint for courts across Canada and around the world on how to address and rectify systemic social and racial injustices in the age of Black Lives Matter, lawyers say.

Justice Anne Derrick, a judge of the Court of Appeal in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia—Nova Scotia’s highest court—penned what she describes as “guidance for judges sentencing African Nova Scotian offenders” and described the court’s use a tool developed in Nova Scotia known as an “Impact of Race and Culture Assessments (IRCA).”