African Legal Studies. A Survey of the Field and the Role of the United States

Abstract

In the United States lawyers have been slow starters in the field of African studies. While American anthropologists and sociologists-and in more recent years, political scientists and economists-have been prolific in African research,' their legal colleagues have, with few exceptions,2 remained silent. Perhaps this is attributable in some degree to the natural conservatism of the breed, or-as the less charitable may aver-to legal parochialism. More probably it is due to the pressing claims on time and money which are made in American law schools by less exotic and, it would seem, more immediately practical subjects; then, too, it must be borne in mind that the freedom of the United States from colonial commitments in Africa removed one of the incentives which induced lawyers in countries like Britain or France to devote themselves to this field. But perhaps the main reason for the late entry of American lawyers into this area is the fact that it is only in very recent years, with the upsurge of independence throughout Africa, that knowledge of African legal systems, and of their potential development, has become essential for the effective conduct of international relations and trade. The recently won freedom of African states has generated a new vitality, and has brought into focus new problems of world-wide importance. But despite the comparative novelty in America of African legal studies, it would be a mistake to conclude that no work has been done in this field. While it is perhaps true that lawyers, as a class, have tended to be less prolific and, possibly, less influential in African studies than their colleagues in anthropology, sociology, political science, and history,3 they have not in the past neglected African problems