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Begin New Search Topic Legal Theory Political Geography Africa

1. The social and economic cost of Egypt's prison system

Author:
Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights Legal Researcher and Lawyer
Publication Date:
02-2022
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Arab Reform Initiative (ARI)
Abstract:
Legal scholars have long been concerned with how to deter crime and limit its spread. For a long time, imprisonment has been used as a tool to serve these two purposes. On one hand, prisons function as a means to deprive inmates of their liberty and deter public and private crime. On the other hand, they also seek to reform convicts in a way that facilitates their reintegration into society by adopting appropriate rehabilitation programs for each prisoner.1 Despite the general deterrent impact of imprisonment, overreliance on such penalties can also have negative consequences – particularly when prisons fail to fulfil the rehabilitation component of their role. Prisons then risk turning into a hotbed that enables even more dangerous criminal behavior. As such, some legal scholars believe that penalties that deprive individuals of their liberties are no longer considered the best or only means to create more stable and secure societies, nor to reduce crime rates.
Topic:
Crime, Law, Legal Theory, and Legal Sector
Political Geography:
Africa, Egypt, and MENA

2. The Status of Amnesty Provisions in Situations of Transition under the African Charter

Author:
Solomon Dersso
Publication Date:
05-2021
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR)
Abstract:
This policy paper presents a review of the analysis of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights on the legal validity of amnesty provisions under the African Charter. It examines how the obiter dictum of the Commission in Thomas Kwoyelo v. Uganda advances its jurisprudence on amnesty and the parameters the Commission has set for evaluating amnesty provisions.
Topic:
Human Rights, Legal Theory, Violence, Peace, and Reconciliation
Political Geography:
Africa

3. The web of legal pluralism and traditional authorities in Mozambique

Author:
Jorge João Muchacona
Publication Date:
12-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brazilian Journal of African Studies
Institution:
Brazilian Journal of African Studies
Abstract:
Legal pluralism is seen as a theory that supports the coexistence of several legal systems within the same society. This is due to the existence of efficient legal systems, simultaneously in the same environment and spacetime. This coexistence of several legal systems in the same space and time has gained historical relevance due to several factors, such as the rupture of the Roman Empire, which resulted in the forced cultural exchange resulting from the barbarian invasions. Colonization also caused a situation in which several rules and customs of different peoples had to coexist, namely between colonized and colonizers. With decolonization, legal systems were created based on the rules of the colonizers, but with specificities and differences of their own. Globalization has also influenced the diversification of legal pluralisms, weakening the role of the state as the sole holder and creator of legal systems.
Topic:
Globalization, Law, Legal Theory, Colonialism, Authority, Pluralism, and Legal Sector
Political Geography:
Africa and Mozambique

4. Basis and Implications of the ICC's Ruling Against Myanmar

Author:
Tanushree Nigam
Publication Date:
12-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Public International Law Policy Group
Abstract:
n a major decision, the International Criminal Court ruled on September 6, 2018 that the Court may exercise jurisdiction over the crime of alleged deportation of the Rohingyas from Myanmar to Bangladesh. The Pre-Trial Chamber accepted the OTP’s argument that the Court may exercise jurisdiction over the crime of cross border deportation of Rohingyas even though the alleged crime had been committed in Myanmar which is not a State Party. The Pre-Trial Chamber stated that this could be done as some “elements of the crime” had taken place in the territory of Bangladesh, which is a State Party. This judgment makes a towering statement that ICC’s jurisdiction is objective rather than subjective in nature. In this post, I discuss the basis and implications of the Chamber’s findings.
Topic:
Legal Theory, International Criminal Court (ICC), Humanitarian Crisis, and Deportation
Political Geography:
Africa, Asia, South Korea, North Korea, and Myanmar

5. Challenging the Legal Ideology of the State: Cause Lawyering and Social Movements in Egypt

Author:
Ahmed Ezzat
Publication Date:
05-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Arab Reform Initiative (ARI)
Abstract:
Egyptian cause lawyers have constituted a strong socio-professional group and successfully used “strategic litigation” to challenge the state’s policies and counter its conservative narratives. With President El-Sissi in power and the security grip over legal institutions and courts, doubts were raised as to whether it still makes sense to go to court against the state over matters of rights and freedoms. By reviewing several emblematic cases, the author analyzes the impact of cause lawyering on mobilization and social movements and how it contributed to reshaping the public sphere, as well as the challenges the cause lawyers’ movement faces under El-Sissi.
Topic:
Human Rights, United Nations, Social Movement, and Legal Theory
Political Geography:
Africa, North Africa, Egypt, and Mediterranean

6. The Way Forward for Legal Education Reform in Ghana

Author:
S. Kwaku Asare
Publication Date:
10-2019
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Ghana Center for Democratic Development
Abstract:
Abstract
Topic:
Education, Law, and Legal Theory
Political Geography:
Africa and Ghana

7. Promoting New Kinds of Legal Labour Migration Pathways Between Europe and Africa

Author:
Michael Clemens, Helen Dempster, and Kate Gough
Publication Date:
10-2019
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Center for Global Development (CGD)
Abstract:
As Europe’s working-age population continues to decline, sub-Saharan Africa’s is rapidly increasing. Many of these new labour market entrants will seek opportunities in Europe, plugging skill gaps and contributing to economies in their countries of destination. To make the most of these movements, the new European Commission should create and promote new kinds of legal labour migration pathways with more tangible benefits to countries of origin and destination; pilot and scale Global Skill Partnership projects between Europe and sub-Saharan Africa and within Africa; and be a positive voice for migration within Europe, promoting the benefits from migration and ensuring they are understood.
Topic:
Migration, Labor Issues, Legal Theory, Borders, and Labor Market
Political Geography:
Africa and Europe

8. Breakfast Talk by Thuli Madonsela (former Public Protector of South Africa)

Author:
Rosalie Dieleman and David Lando
Publication Date:
11-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Public International Law Policy Group
Abstract:
Ms. Madonsela is the former Public Protector of South Africa, Chairperson of the African Ombudsman Research Center in South Africa, and one of the drafters of the South African post-Apartheid constitution. She has been in the spotlight during the last year for a report she filed before leaving the Office of the Protector regarding the connection between South African President Zuma and Indian-South African lucrative businessmen Ajay, Atul, and Rajesh Gupta. The report “details a disturbing web of influence exerted over parts of the South African state by a powerful family of Mr. Zuma’s chums”,[1] the Gupta family. The report indicates that the Gupta family was involved in political appointment, including that of the South African finance minister.
Topic:
Apartheid, Corruption, Law, and Legal Theory
Political Geography:
Africa, South Africa, and Southern Africa

9. Global Remittances: Update on the UK-Somali Corridor

Author:
Mohamed Aden Hassan and Giulia Liberatore
Publication Date:
01-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
In May 2013 Barclays Bank in the UK announced it was shutting down the accounts of four Somali Money Service Businesses (MSBs) includ- ing Dahabshiil, the largest remittance company operating in the Somali regions. Following international uproar, and a Somali diaspora-led grassroots campaign, the UK government took on the task of setting up an Action Group on Cross Border Remittances and a Somali-UK Safer Corridor Pilot Project with the aim of finding a durable solution to the problem. Two years later, however, the Safer Corridor Project has collapsed. Legal remittance flows persist, albeit in a fragile and precarious environment. This paper provides a brief update on the Safer Corridor Initiative, its challenges, and how the money transfer sector has been adapting to the process.
Topic:
International Cooperation, International Trade and Finance, Diaspora, and Legal Theory
Political Geography:
Africa, United Kingdom, Europe, and Somalia

10. The Prospects for Peace in Burundi: Some Policy Options

Author:
George Omondi
Publication Date:
07-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Social Science Research Council
Abstract:
The current crisis in Burundi stems from an insistence by incumbent president Pierre Nku- runziza that he is eligible to run in the coming elections to retain his office. Despite a consti- tutional court ruling in May 2015 that upheld the president’s position, opposition parties, civil society groups, religious leaders, and a section of the ruling party—the National Council for the Defense of Democracy–Forces for the Defense of Democracy (CNDD-FDD)—disagree. Their view is that President Nkurunziza has served the two terms allowed him by the consti- tution and the Arusha agreement, which was signed in August 2000 to end the civil war that began in 1993. If he runs, it will be for a third term, which is unconstitutional. A recent wave of protests rallying around a movement against a third presidential term crystallized and intensified after the president made his plan official and the National Elections Commission (CENI) subsequently cleared him to run alongside other candidates. Violent repression of protestors by police and the intimidation of citizens by a militia group linked to the ruling party have led to scores of deaths and an increasing number of refugees fleeing the country. A humanitarian catastrophe looms, internally and in neighboring countries, especially the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda, and Tanzania, which are receiving refugees from Burundi. Even worse, a return to civil war, with all the costs associated with such instability, could greatly undermine efforts to attain stability in the Great Lakes Region, where several conflicts are underway in countries around Burundi, notably the DRC, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, and Uganda. Worst of all, militant ethnic solidarities between pro- regime groups in Burundi and a predominantly Hutu militia opposed to the Rwanda govern- ment based in the DRC could further escalate conflict in the region.
Topic:
Social Movement, Legal Theory, Protests, Peace, and Humanitarian Crisis
Political Geography:
Africa, Burundi, and East Africa