Okay, lots of fantastic different perspectives and analyses in this forum to which I basically have nothing to add.

I know Camus prioritised absurdism here, the exploration of that (moral) philosophy. However, having specialised in postcolonial approaches to history and politics at Uni I cannot shake the role of the Arab.

He is unnamed, for one. Just described as Arab. And then the trial is not even about his murder. It is about Meursault's pied-noir mother. As well as being a trial of Meursault's character and performance in society, it exposes the disinterest (at best) of the indigenous locals by the authorities. Either a racist choice to underline the absurdity of this trial (the courts are racist), or just because Camus himself is racist and felt the need to drop in a nameless Arab's murder as the inciting incident.

There really is no investigation into the fallout of the murder. Where are the victim's friends? His sister and other family? Why were the friends or sister not called as witnesses who interacted with Meursault in more outwardly negative ways than these 'character' witnesses? The victim and his family/friends just have no importance at all, this whole trial is so performative. Meursault is not a good guy, but I'm more pissed off about the trial's ridiculousness on behalf of the ACTUAL victims, not the perpetrator. Sure, he gets the death penalty. But is that justice when the focus was on an elderly woman who died of natural causes that had no actual bearing on the events that led to the trial?

Of course, this novel is all from Meursault's perspective who himself distances himself from those he is 'close' to, so understandable I suppose we don't learn a lot about the Arab and his family. I know Camus wasn't supportive of Algerian independence but he did want more citizen rights for the indigenous, so this muddles his intention. Is he exposing the racist structures of the law and society, or just giving in to them and using the Arab as a tool to excuse the focus on Meursault's character rather than his actions?