Journal Of African Law Research Articles

Review: Special issue in Journal of African Law: The African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance at 10

Review: Special issue in Journal of African Law: The African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance at 10

Afro-communitarianism and affirmative action in South Africa: A response to David Benatar

In a 2008 article “Justice, Diversity and Racial Preference: a Critique of Affirmative Action”, published in the South African Law Journal, David Benatar argues that affirmative action in South African higher education institutions cannot be justified. In response to this argument and the views expressed in his article, I show that his conclusions depend on an individualistic, decontextualised, and dehistoricised conception of the person. I argue that if we take an Afro-communitarian understanding of the person as our starting point, Benatar's arguments fail. An upshot of my argument is that affirmative action emerges as a useful and critical measure of restorative justice in the South African context.

IMPROVING TAX ADMINISTRATION: A CASE STUDY OF THE UGANDA REVENUE AUTHORITY

KANGAVE, JALIA, Improving tax administration: a case study of the Uganda Revenue authority, Journal of African Law, 49, 2 (2005): 145–176The prevalence of poverty in developing countries demands that these countries should improvise internal revenue generating projects to supplement, or better still, ultimately significantly reduce dependence on foreign funding. This way self-sustaining economies will be built. One such internal revenue-generating mechanism, and perhaps the most commonly used, is taxation. This paper makes a case for tax administration as a tool of increasing the contribution of tax revenue to Gross Domestic Product, and consequently, a means of reducing the gap between the rich and the poor. The goal of this paper is to propose ways in which the Uganda Revenue Authority (the URA) can improve its tax administration. To achieve this objective, the paper begins with a detailed discussion of the URA's structure and the procedures it follows in collecting taxes. It then highlights the problems that may arise from such structure and procedures, before making proposals on how the URA can reform its organizational structure and processes to maximize its potential in revenue collection capabilities.

DEONTOLOGICAL RETRIBUTIVISM AND THE LEGAL PRACTICE OF INTERNATIONAL JURISPRUDENCE: THE CASE OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL TRIBUNAL FOR RWANDA

FINK, JASON BENJAMIN, Deontological retributivism and the legal practice of international jurisprudence: the case of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Journal of African Law, 49, 2 (2005): 101–131Contemporary international criminal jurisprudence has fashioned a legal paradigm encoding the crime of genocide as a violation of moral law. Structured by an ethos of deontological retributivism, it has posited a set of institutional and conceptual mechanisms designed to situate and stabilize the meaning of genocide. The articulation of this paradigm has entailed the bracketing or suspending of alternative discursive strategies and institutions, particularly those inscribed with a traditional/contextual value. Configuring the social fact of genocide under a normative framework of retribution often fails to address the realities and needs of the local populations who have suffered through severe social trauma. In the intensely unstable space of post-genocidal societies, such as Rwanda, the mandating of formal legal structures by international judicial authorities may constitute a genuine barrier to the critical appropriation of the fact of genocide into the communal memory by imposing a set of privileged frameworks without recognizing the formal integrity and constructive potential of local strategies.

THE COLLAPSE OF THE ORGANIZATION OF AFRICAN UNITY: LESSONS FROM ECONOMICS, AND HISTORY

KUFUOR, KOFI OTENG, The collapse of the Organization of African Unity: Lessons from economics and history, Journal of African Law, 49, 2 (2005): 132–144This paper argues that the analytical tools of the New Institutional Economics (NIE) School provide fruitful lines of inquiry into the decision to replace the Organization of African Unity with the African Union. The application of two NIE methodologies, economics and history, do explain why the OAU had failed to play a meaningful role in African affairs. Relying on economic tools, the paper explores issues relating to monitoring of the members' commitments, the provision of public goods, decision-making, and membership of the OAU. Historical approaches seek to explain why the OAU remained as Africa's paramount regional organization for four decades despite the obvious flaws in the OAU's design and the consequent inefficiencies these flaws produced.

NIGERIA'S PRINCIPAL INVESTMENT LAWS IN THE CONTEXT OF INTERNATIONAL LAW AND PRACTICE

EKWUEME, KHRUSHCHEV, Nigeria's principal investment laws in the context of international law and practice, Journal of African Law, 49, 2 (2005): 177–206The enactment of the NIPC Act and FEMMP Act in 1995 represent a paradigm shift in Nigeria in three major areas of investment rule-making, namely, investment liberalization, investment protection and settlement of investment disputes. These statutes, especially the NIPC Act, contain certain investment-friendly provisions relating to foreign participation in Nigerian enterprises, guarantees against expropriation, nationalization and currency risk, as well as State-investor arbitration. Although the literature on the NIPC Act and FEMMP Act is vast, no in-depth scholarly study has been done on them in the context of international law and practice. Primarily, this article examines the provisions of these laws through a practical lens by studying them alongside the jurisprudence of the ICSID. It also explores specific constitutional and administrative law questions intimately related to the treatment of foreign investment in Nigeria. Finally, it assesses inflows of FDI into Nigeria and considers some of the impediments to foreign investment in the country.

A FULL LOAF IS BETTER THAN HALF: THE CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTION OF ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS IN MALAWI

CHIRWA, DANWOOD MZIKENGE, A full loaf is better than half: the constitutional protection of economic, social and cultural rights in Malawi, Journal of African Law, 49, 2 (2005): 207–241The last two decades have seen a new wave of constitution-making in Africa as many countries changed from autocracy to democracy. Malawi followed the trend by adopting a new Constitution in 1994 to mark the end of a 30-year, dictatorial one-party regime. This Constitution breaks with traditional constitutions by recognizing economic, social and cultural rights. However, few of these rights are entrenched in the Bill of Rights as justiciable rights. The rest are enshrined as unenforceable principles of national policy. These provisions and the jurisprudence they have generated thus far are discussed critically. It is argued that while the Malawian Constitution deserves acclaim for recognizing these rights, the model adopted for protecting them fails to give full effect to the notion of the indivisibility of all rights and is not good enough for a poor country, which is also in transition to democracy. Not only was Malawi's choice of this model not preceded by a careful and reasoned examination of the existing models and the local circumstances, it was also made without wide public consultations. The ways, based on the existing constitutional provisions, in which the protection of these rights can be improved are explored.

The Journal of African Law 1957–96: Then and Now

This special number of the Journal of African Law has a dual function. First, commemorates 40 years of continuous production of the only learned journal devoted exclusively to African law. And secondly, it is presented as a tribute to the signal achievement of Professor James Read of the School of Oriental and African Studies in devoting himself to the study and advancement of African law, both at the School and elsewhere. The two successes run in parallel. Often their lines intersect. Jim Read directly and indirectly has made an enormous contribution to the expansion of the notion of African law since those early days, an expansion which has fed back into the concerns and the range of materials which the contents list of the Journal now displays.

The Reputational Penalty Firms Bear from Committing Criminal Fraud

Introduction Optimal penalties for corporate fraud require that firms face expected penalties equal to the total social costs of the crime. Yet formal courtimposed sanctions for committing fraud often represent a small fraction of the damage produced by the fraud. Sheer and Ho (1989), for example, estimate that the median and mean ratios of criminal fines to the private loss from private fraud were 0.14 and 0.73 in 1988. The corresponding median and mean ratios for government procurement fraud were 0.29 and 1.60. Including criminal restitution raises the median dollar sanction-to-loss ratio for private fraud to 0.84 and for government procurement fraud to 0.68. These ratios are for private parties convicted of fraud. The ratio of the expected court-imposed penalty to the social cost of the fraud is undoubtedly smaller. Particularly when compared to other crimes such as environmental pollution, where the median ratio of criminal fines to private loss is 3.71, the penalty for fraud seems surprisingly low. The perceived underpunishment of corporate frauds has recently affected public policy. Reflecting popular opinion that existing penalties were too low, the US Sentencing Commission – the federal agency responsible for setting the penalty guidelines used by judges – established corporate sentencing guidelines in 1991 that raised median corporate fraud penalties by over twentyfold. This article criticises the conventional wisdom about corporate fraud in two ways. First, we explain that the typical optimal criminal penalty for private corporate fraud is small because the external effects of such frauds are usually small. An increase in criminal penalties for corporate fraud can do more harm than good because it encourages the substitution of criminal penalties for reputation as a mechanism to police fraudulent behaviour.

Jury trial, continental style

Strange events are occurring in the world of the jury. At a time when English confidence in the institution is on the ebb, a phenomenon evidenced both in the titles of recent jury studies - The Jury Under Attack and Taking Liberties- and in a steady stream of skeptical commentaries, it is reported that in Japan the Bar Federation is set to call for the restoration of jury trial, first introduced by a law of 1926 but suspended after an experimental period in 1942. Spain has a new Constitution that imposes a duty on the legislature to institute jury trial, an undertaking currently under examination by the Spanish Ministry of Justice. And in South Africa, recent calls for a more representative justice system have prompted the editor of the South African Law Journal, Professor Ellison Kahn, to devote a tetralogy of articles to consideration of the reintroduction of jury trial within that jurisdiction.

Women, Landed Property, and the Accumulation of Wealth in Early Colonial Lagos

Previous articleNext article No AccessWomen, Landed Property, and the Accumulation of Wealth in Early Colonial LagosKristin MannKristin Mann Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Signs Volume 16, Number 4Summer, 1991Women, Family, State, and Economy in Africa Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/494699 Views: 16Total views on this site Citations: 16Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1991 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Marcia Wright Gender, Women, and Power in Africa, 1750–1914, (Nov 2020): 415–430.https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119535812.ch25Jane Hooper “A mere business affair”?Women in the social and commercial worlds of nineteenth-century Madagascar, Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des études africaines 54, no.33 (Jun 2020): 437–457.https://doi.org/10.1080/00083968.2020.1749096Mariana P. Candido Understanding African women’s access to landed property in nineteenth-century Benguela, Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des études africaines 54, no.33 (Aug 2020): 395–417.https://doi.org/10.1080/00083968.2020.1749095Tom Goodfellow, Olly Owen Thick claims and thin rights: Taxation and the construction of analogue property rights in Lagos, Economy and Society 49, no.33 (Jul 2020): 406–432.https://doi.org/10.1080/03085147.2020.1730587Mariana P. Candido The Expansion of Slavery in Benguela During the Nineteenth Century, International Review of Social History 65, no.S28S28 (Mar 2020): 67–92.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020859020000140Omolade Adunbi (Re)inventing development: China, infrastructure, sustainability and special economic zones in Nigeria, Africa 89, no.44 (Nov 2019): 662–679.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0001972019000846Michael Attah Divorcing Marriage from Marital Assets: Why Equity and Women Fail in Property Readjustment Actions in Nigeria, Journal of African Law 62, no.33 (Sep 2018): 427–446.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021855318000207Temilola Alanamu Church Missionary Society evangelists and women's labour in nineteenth-century Abẹ́òkúta, Africa 88, no.22 (May 2018): 291–311.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0001972017000924Tom Goodfellow, Oliver Owen Taxation, Property Rights and the Social Contract in Lagos, SSRN Electronic Journal (Jan 2018).https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3120572Mariana P. Candido Engendering West Central African History: The Role of Urban Women in Benguela in the Nineteenth Century, History in Africa 42 (Apr 2015): 7–36.https://doi.org/10.1017/hia.2015.16Mojúbàolú Olúfúnké Okome Gendered States: Women’s Civil Society Activism in Nigerian Politics, (Jan 2013): 109–155.https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137324535_5Paul Tiyambe Zeleza Discriminations de genre dans l’historiographie africaine, (Jan 2010): 355–374.https://doi.org/10.4000/books.iheid.5908Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch De la ville en Afrique noire, Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales 61, no.55 (May 2017): 1085–1119.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0395264900039949Marjorie K. McIntosh The Diversity of Social Capital in English Communities, 1300–1640 (with a Glance at Modern Nigeria), The Journal of Interdisciplinary History 29, no.33 (Jan 1999): 459–490.https://doi.org/10.1162/002219598551788Barbara M Cooper Gender, Movement, and History: Social and Spatial Transformations in 20th Century Maradi, Niger, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 15, no.22 (Nov 2016): 195–221.https://doi.org/10.1068/d150195Lisa A. Lindsay ‘To return to the bosom of their fatherland’: Brazilian immigrants in nineteenth‐century Lagos, Slavery & Abolition 15, no.11 (Jun 2008): 22–50.https://doi.org/10.1080/01440399408575114

THE MANAGEMENT OF COMMON PROPERTY RESOURCES: Finding a Cooperative Solution

When will villagers come together to supply themselves with goods and services that they all need but could not provide for themselves individually? Can locally based collective action be a viable way to manage common property resources? Many writers on collective action and common property are pessimisric about the ability of people who face problems with common property resources to organize sustainable patterns of use for themselves. Some writers favor privatization of 1:he commons as the only viable solution; others, the imposition of state regulation. This article shows, with reference 232 Research Observer 2, no. 2 (July 1987) to Mancur Olson's logic of collective action, that the analytical basis for this pessimism is weak for the village-based use of common property resources. There can thus be no general presumption that collective action will fail in the management of common property resources, any more than there can be a general presumption that it will work. article suggests that the chances of success through collective action depend on the characteristics of the resources, the user group, and group-state relations. This article is based on a forthcoming book, Village Republics: Conditions Notes for Collective Action in South India, Cambridge University Press. I am grateful to Hans Binswanger, Richard Kimber, Ford Runge, and especially Elinor Ostrom for discussions on various points of the argument. 1. For references, see citations later in text. 2. It is not that Olson says or implies that the size of the collective net benefit is irrelevant; he simply does not give it much attention. 3. For example, McKean (1984) on Japan; Gilles and Jamtgaard (1981) on Peru; Campbell and Godoy (1985) on the Andes; Hitchcock (1980), Peters (1983), and Thomsen (1980) on Africa; and Netting (1978) on Switzerland. See also Runge (1987) and Ostrom (1985b). 4. This argument is in line with some of the early writings in public choice theory, notably Buchanan and Tullock (1962) and Ostrom (1968). Later work in the public choice tradition has tended to focus too much on the issue of financial contributions. I have not discussed here the issue of group size. Olson's celebrated theorem, stated without qualification early in his book, is later restricted to large groups in a taxonomy of small, intermediate, and large. He says little about how to distinguish the three types of groups in practice, but he might argue that the groups under discussion here are intermediate groups and therefore outside the scope of his argument. 5. See also Ostrom (1985b), the starting point of my own formulation. Ault, W. 1973. Open-field Farming in Medieval England: A Study of Village By-laws. References London: Allen and Unwin. Blomquist, W., and E. Ostrom. 1985. Institutional Capacity and the Resolution of a Commons Dilemma. Policy Studies Review 5, no. 2: 383-93. Buchanan, J., and G. Tullock. 1962. Calculus of Consent. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Campbell, Bruce, and R. Godoy. 1985. Common-field Agriculture: Andes and Medieval England Compared. Queens University of Belfast, Geography Department. Carruthers, I., and R. Stoner. 1981. Aspects and Policy Issues in Groundwater Development. World Bank Staff Working Paper 496. Washington, D.C. Demsetz, H. 1967. Toward a Theory of Property Rights. American Review 57: 347-59. Dore, R. 1971. Modern Cooperatives in Traditional Communities. In P. Worsley, ed. Two Blades of Grass. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Gilles, J. L., and K. Jamtgaard. 1981. Overgrazing in Pastoral Areas: Commons Reconsidered. Sociologia Ruralis 21: 129-41. Hardin, G. 1968. The Tragedy of the Commons. Science 162 (December): 1343-48. Hitchcock, R. K. 1980. Tradition, Social Justice, and Land Reform in Central Botswana. Journal of African Law 24: 1-34. Johnson, 0. 1972. Economic Analysis, the Legal Framework and Land Tenure Systems. Journal of Law and Economics 15: 259-76.

Special Issue: Women in Farming Systems: Cameroon, Botswana, Zambia, Tanzania, Taiwan

Special Issue: Women in Farming Systems: Cameroon, Botswana, Zambia, Tanzania, Taiwan

PHARMACIA, STILL IN REEXAMINATION, SUES LOS ANGELES COMPANY ON RAST PATENT

Biotechnology Law ReportVol. 2, No. 2 PHARMACIA, STILL IN REEXAMINATION, SUES LOS ANGELES COMPANY ON RAST PATENTPublished Online:10 Jul 2009https://doi.org/10.1089/blr.1983.2.27AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB Permissions & CitationsPermissionsDownload CitationsTrack CitationsAdd to favorites Back To Publication ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail "PHARMACIA, STILL IN REEXAMINATION, SUES LOS ANGELES COMPANY ON RAST PATENT." , 2(2), p. 27FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsCited byJudicial and Legislative Approaches to Tax Evasion and Avoidance in Nigeria28 July 2009 | Journal of African Law, Vol. 29, No. 1 Volume 2Issue 2Feb 1983 To cite this article:PHARMACIA, STILL IN REEXAMINATION, SUES LOS ANGELES COMPANY ON RAST PATENT.Biotechnology Law Report.Feb 1983.27-27.http://doi.org/10.1089/blr.1983.2.27Published in Volume: 2 Issue 2: July 10, 2009PDF download

Studies in the Making of Colonial Laws (special issue of the Journal of African Law, vol. 23, no. 1 (Spring, 1979)). Edited by H. F. Morris, James S. Read and Peter Slinn. London: School of Oriental and African Studies, 1979. Pp. 107. £3.75.

Studies in the Making of Colonial Laws (special issue of the Journal of African Law, vol. 23, no. 1 (Spring, 1979)). Edited by H. F. Morris, James S. Read and Peter Slinn. London: School of Oriental and African Studies, 1979. Pp. 107. £3.75. - Volume 21 Issue 3

THE ART AND PICTORIAL PRESS IN CANADA; TWO CENTURIES OF ART MAGAZINES. Karen McKenzie , Mary F. Williamson

Previous articleNext article No AccessBOOK REVIEWSTHE ART AND PICTORIAL PRESS IN CANADA; TWO CENTURIES OF ART MAGAZINES. Karen McKenzie , Mary F. Williamson Helene RobertsHelene Roberts Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Volume 7, Number 6OCTOBER 1979 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/arlisnanews.7.6.27946208 Views: 3Total views on this site Citations: 1Citations are reported from Crossref Journal History This article was published in the ARLIS/NA Newsletter (1972-1981), which is continued by Art Documentation (1982-present). Copyright © 1979 ARLIS/NORTH AMERICAPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:I. Schapera Tswana Concepts of Custom and Law, Journal of African Law 27, no.22 (Jul 2009): 141–149.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021855300013188

A Note on Current South African Legal Periodicals and Law Reports

South Africa has a long tradition of law journal publishing. The Cape Law Journal was founded in 1884. Its name was changed to the South African Law Journal in 1901 and it has continued to appear ever since. Certain other journals commenced in the past, then either disappeared or now appear in another guise. For instance the South African Law Times was published for a few years in the 1930's only. Similarly Butterworths South African Law Review was the precursor to the current Acta Juridica. However, today a wide range of titles are published. Juta and Company Limited (P.O. Box 123, Kenwyn, Cape Province 7790) publishes the South African Law Journal and several other law and law-related periodicals and law reports. Another regular publisher of legal journals is Butterworths and Co. (S.A.) (Pty) Limited, (P.O. Box 792, Durban 4000).

III: Twenty Years On—The Journal of African Law and African Law: A Look at the Past and the Future

The attainment of twenty years in the lifetime of a learned journal such as the Journal of African Law is an occasion which deserves to be commemorated. As one of its many readers I should like to pay my tribute to the editors and contributors on their efforts at fostering the study of the laws in Africa during the past two decades.

Twenty Years on—The Journal of African Law and African Law: A Look at the Past and the Future I

To launch a new journal is an act of faith; it is also an act of recognition. An act of faith, because the editors and publishers of the journal will naturally ask themselves where the readership is to come from, which is to make the journal viable. An act of recognition, because the new journal officially marks, at least in the minds of its begetters, the recognition that a new area of theoretical study or practical action has now defined itself, which has hitherto been unrecognised or insufficiently provided for by the journals already in existence. As the first editor of this Journal, and the only member of the original Editorial Committee still serving the Journalin that capacity, I may be permitted to indulge in a personal reflection on the motives and background to the launching of the Journal of African Law in 1957.

II: Twenty Years On—The Journal of African Law and African Law: A Look at the Past and the Future

The launching of the Journal of African Law in 1957 seemed a bold venture. It was less than ten years since African law, as a subject of study in its own right, had received its first recognition in legal circles in this country, whether academic or professional; and there were as yet comparatively few who appreciated its importance or its capacity for development.