Lawyering Imperial Encounters

Negotiating Africa's Relationship with the World Economy

Sara Dezalay

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2025
• Topic: Law
• eBook ISBN:
  9781009493338
• Subtopic: International Law
• Index: Law

Lawyering Imperial Encounters revisits the relationship between the African continent and global capitalism since the 19th century Scramble. Focused on sites of imperial encounters – in London, Paris, Abidjan, Bujumbura, Kinshasa, Johannesburg or the Hague, it provides an unprecedented account of the correlation between the legacy of legal imperialism and British hegemony, and the uneven and unequal expansion of finance and global justice in the current rush for Africa's 'green' minerals. Tracking the role played by legal intermediaries to negotiate and justify Africa's practical and symbolic subaltern position in the global economy, it demonstrates the interconnectedness between political, legal and economic change in capitalism's cores and its so-called peripheries. Embracing the global turn in sociology, history and legal scholarship, it rubs against the functionalist account of global value chains as engines of development. It also constitutes a powerful postcolonial critique of law's double-bind - as both enabler and bulwark against domination.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Series information
• Title page
• Imprints page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• List of Abbreviations
• Introduction
• 1 Imperial Encounters: Localities, Institutions, Structures
• 2 Indirect Rule and Middle Power: 1880s–1950s
• 3 Gatekeeper States and Offshore Capitalism: 1950s–1980s
• 4 The New Scramble, Deregulation, Re-regulation: 1980s–?
• 5 Bujumbura: Hyperviolence and Hyperlegality
• 6 Abidjan: Lawfare and Accountability Dumping
• 7 Paris: The ‘Africa’ Corporate Bar: Imperial Revivals and Neoliberalism
• 8 The Value of Social Class in Global Justice
• Conclusion
• References
• Index