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Abstract
Focussing on the relationship between legal colonisation and legal globalisation in the context of post-conflict peacebuilding and reconstruction, I argue that promotion of the rule of law as social domination over local economies, politics and societies has been, historically, core to international efforts. Legal and judicial reforms, which are designed to restore and strengthen the post-conflict state, not only serve to obfuscate historical conditions associated with settler-colonial rule but also reconstitute the relationship between dominant domestic actors and global capital. Moreover, whereas rule-of-law promotion has increasingly been professionalised and standardised, the underlying objectives to promote neoliberal economic growth, subordinate indigenous legal systems, and advancing ruling interests remain the enduring legacies of legal colonialism. In making this argument, I interrogate the underlying ideological and political drivers of the UK-supported justice sector development in Sierra Leone and the US-funded rule-of-law programmes in Liberia.
Acknowledgements
Initial research for this article was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), and the writing up of the findings was enabled by the UKRI GCRF Gender, Justice and Security Hub. The author is grateful to the editors and reviewers of Third World Quarterly for their thoughtful feedback. He also appreciates colleagues and friends who provided helpful comments and suggestions, including Michael Kargbo, Paula Brook, and Merouan Mekouar.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 Merry, “From Law and Colonization to Law and Globalization,” 570.
2 Waller, Legal History and Historiography,” 2.
3 Maddison and Shepherd, “Peacebuilding and the Post-Colonial Politics,” 254.
4 Sesay, “Hijacking the Rule of Law in Postconflict Environments.”
5 Merry, “From Law and Colonization to Law and Globalization,” 589.
6 Dyck, “States of Unrest.”
7 Kandeh, “Intervention and Peacebuilding in Sierra Leone.”
8 Sitze, Impossible Machine.
9 Dann and Hanschamann, “Post-Colonial Theories and Law,” 124.
10 Maddison and Shepherd, “Peacebuilding and the Post-Colonial Politics,” 255.
11 Comaroff, “Colonialism, Culture, and the Law,” 309.
12 Ibid., 310.
13 Ibid., 307.
14 Chanock, Making of South African Legal Culture, 1.
15 Benton, “Making Order out of Trouble,” 376.
16 Shamir and Hacker, “Colonialism’s Civilizing Mission,” 436.
17 Merryman and Perez-Perdomo, Civil Law Tradition, 68.
18 Ibid., 64.
19 Ibid., 67.
20 Ibid.
21 Comaroff, “Colonialism, Culture, and the Law.”
22 Benton, Law and Colonial Cultures, 3.
23 Dann and Hanschamann, “Post-Colonial Theories and Law,” 124.
24 Merry, “From Law and Colonization to Law and Globalization.”
25 Sabaratnam, Decolonizing Intervention, 4.
26 Merry, “From Law and Colonization to Law and Globalization,” 578.
27 Thompson, Whigs and Hunters, 263.
28 Sabaratnam, Decolonizing Intervention.
29 Mattei and Nader, Plunder: When the Rule of Law Is Illegal, 202.
30 Rajagopal, “Invoking the Rule of Law,” 1348.
31 Carothers, “The Rule of Law Revival,” 95.
32 USAID, “Guide to Rule of Law Country Analysis.”
33 Sriram, Martin-Ortega, and Herman, Peacebuilding and the Rule of Law in Africa.
34 World Bank, World Development Report.
35 Paris and Sisk, The Dilemmas of Statebuilding, 3.
36 Fukuyama, “Transitions to the Rule of Law.”
37 Slaughter, New World Order, 166.
38 Ikenberry, “Future of the Liberal World Order,” 62.
39 Acharya, Whose Ideas Matter?, 10.
40 Merry, “From Law and Colonization to Law and Globalization,” 580.
41 Stromseth, Wippman, and Brooks, Can Might Make Might?
42 Brooks, “New Imperialism,” 2283.
43 Sesay, “Hijacking the Rule of Law in Postconflict Environments.”
44 Sitze, Impossible Machine, 251.
45 Constant, Principles of Politics, 65.
46 Sharon, “Domination and the Rule of Law,” 153.
47 Sitze, Impossible Machine, 3.
48 Cresswell, Education Research, 204.
49 McAdams, Transitional Justice and the Rule of Law.
50 Kargbo, “International Peacebuilding in Sierra Leone.”
51 DFID, “The Africa Conflict Prevention Pool.”
52 United States Department of State, “Guide to Justice Sector Assistance.”
53 USAID, “Final Evaluation of GEMAP Activities.”
54 Sesay, “Hijacking the Rule of Law in Postconflict Environments.”
55 USAID, “Evaluation of Rule of Law Programmes in Liberia.”
56 DFID, “Policy on Safety, Security, and Access to Justice.”
57 Awareness Times, “Statement by the Chief Justice.”
58 Blair, Karim, and Morse, “Establishing the Rule of Law,” 641.
59 Suma, Sierra Leone: Justice Sector, 82.
60 President of Sierra Leone, “State Opening Speech.”
61 Kandeh, “Intervention and Peacebuilding in Sierra Leone,” 90.
62 Zartman, Collapsed States: The Disintegration and Restoration, 5.
63 Bratton, “State Building and Democratization in Sub-Saharan Africa,” 9.
64 Reno, Warlord Politics and African States.
65 Tull, “A Reconfiguration of Political Order,” 430.
66 Wai, “Neopatrimonialism and the Discourse of State Failure in Africa,” 34.
67 Liberia Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report, Volume II, 98.
68 Findley, delegate to the ACS conference (In Liberia TRC Report, 100).
69 Sawyer, Emergence of Autocracy in Liberia.
70 Chalmers, Liberia and the Dialectic of Law, 6.
71 Kandeh, “Politicization of Ethnic Identities in Sierra Leone,” 87.
72 Wyse, Krio of Sierra Leone.
73 Liberia Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report, Volume II, 99.
74 Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Witness to Truth.
75 Reno, “Humanitarian Emergencies and Warlord Economies.”
76 Jung, “Canada and the Legacy of the Indian Residential Schools,” 218.
77 Ibid.
78 Hanlon, “Is the International Community Helping to Recreate?”
79 Dyck, “States of Unrest,” 81.
80 Sharon, “Domination and the Rule of Law,” 131.
81 Kandeh, “Intervention and Peacebuilding in Sierra Leone.”
83 Green Advocates International, “Final Letter of Complaint to RSPO on Golden Veroleum.”
84 Stokes, “Riot on the Plantation.”
85 Ibid.
86 Ibid.
87 Ibid.
88 Magee, In “Riot on the Plantation.”
89 Government of Liberia, Statement by the Minister of Justice and Attorney General.
90 Government of Liberia Executive Mansion, “President Sirleaf on Tour of Sinoe County.”
91 Centre for International Conflict Resolution, “Smell-No-Taste,” 1.
92 Network Movement for Justice and Development, “Diamond, Blood, and Tears.”
95 Network Movement for Justice and Development, “Diamond, Blood, and Tears.”
96 BBC, “Sierra Leone Koidu Mine.”
97 Chalmers, Liberia and the Dialectic of Law, 6.
98 Chanock, Making of South African Legal Culture, 23.
99 Centre for International Conflict Resolution, “Smell-No-Taste,” 7.
100 Knight and Cordes, “Bad-Faith Contracts and Unjust Investment.”
101 Hussain, Jurisprudence of Emergency, 4.
102 Mamdani, Citizen and Subject.
103 Ibid.
104 International Crisis Group, “Sierra Leone and Liberia: Rebuilding Failed States.”
105 In Sierra Leone, this is the origin of the concept of ‘surface rent’ paid by mining companies.
106 Mattei and Nader, Plunder: When the Rule of Law Is Illegal, 6.
107 Fitzjames Stephen, In Jurisprudence of Emergency, 4.
108 Thompson, Whigs and Hunters.
109 Courtright, “Sierra Leone Small Towns Learn to Fight.”
110 Ibid.
111 Fitzjames Stephen, In Jurisprudence of Emergency, 4.
112 Dugard, Human Rights and the South African Legal Order.
113 Africa Progress Panel, “Jobs, Justice, and Equity.”
114 Ibid., 6.
115 Sitze, Impossible Machine, 252.
116 Ibid., 2.
117 Mattei and Nader, Plunder: When the Rule of Law Is Illegal.
118 Sabaratnam, Decolonizing Intervention.
Additional information
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Mohamed Sesay
Mohamed Sesay is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Science at York University. His research has recently been published in the European Journal of International Security and African Affairs. His forthcoming book is titled Domination through Law: The Internationalisation of Legal Norms in Postcolonial Africa.