The Challenges of Researching African High Court Opinions: Ten Lessons Learned from a Four-Country Retrievability Survey

Abstract

This article reveals ten lessons learned from a four-country print-versus-Internet resource retrievability survey of African high court opinions from Botswana, Kenya, Namibia, and South Africa for 1990–2010. The lessons draw upon empirical findings about the courts themselves and the challenges of conducting foreign case law research. This article contributes a new perspective to the conversation about how researchers ought to be equipped for evolving foreign, comparative, and international law (FCIL) work.