Category: Rethinking Legal Research in and with Africa

What happens when transitional justice (TJ) moves beyond negotiated peace agreements and post-conflict transitions and instead operates in a setting of ongoing, cyclical violence? In eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), this is not theoretical but a lived reality. What emerges there challenges some of the field’s assumptions and sheds light on how zooming…

Introduction According to international and African regional human rights instruments, some customs and traditions underpinning child marriage are considered harmful practices and should therefore be abolished, regardless of the cultural, social, religious or geographical contexts in which they are embedded.[1]  However, the effectiveness of these legal and normative standards depends on acceptance and implementation within…

Introduction Every meal tells a hidden story.  Seeds are prepared and sold; a farmer cultivates and harvests; traders and companies buy and sell to clients; and finally, someone cooks.  The meal may look simple, but it is the product of a chain of invisible labour processes. The same is true of the “feed” on social…

Amid escalating impacts of climate change, energy transition is strikingly necessary to tackle climate change. There is an equally important question as the necessity of transition: how this energy transition will be conducted, especially if it will perpetuate or exacerbate the past injustices.[1] Unlike what has been hinted at from time to time, we strongly…

At the Rethinking Legal Research in and with Africa Workshop, Prof. Dr Thoko Kaime presented on the legitimacy critique as a method in legal scholarship, from which we derived our inspiration for this contribution on the International Finance Corporation (IFC) Performance Standards on Environmental and Social Sustainability. These IFC PSs are widely treated as the…

The workshop Rethinking Legal Research in and with Africa brought together scholars and participants to reflect on legal methods, critical perspectives, decolonial approaches, and the relationship between research in human rights and sustainable development. For us, as doctoral researchers working on business and human rights from within the legal discipline, one central question kept returning…

Introduction The workshop “Rethinking Legal Research in and with Africa: Legal Methods, Critical Perspectives, Decolonial Approaches in the Context of Human Rights, Sustainable Development” featured a presentation by Prof. Dr Thoko Kaime on “Legitimacy Critique as Method: African Decolonial Perspectives in Public International Law.” Kaime highlighted how public international law (PIL) is viewed through African…

Introduction Emerging from the workshop Rethinking Legal Research in and with Africa: Legal Methods, Critical Perspectives, and Decolonial Approaches in the Context of Human Rights and Sustainable Development, this jointly developed contribution is authored by four workshop participants. We are all in our doctoral or postdoctoral phase, trained in law across different geographical contexts and…

Decolonising legal methods begins with questioning what legal scholarship allows itself to see as law. The challenge extends beyond simply diversifying legal objects or recognising legal pluralism. It ultimately requires asking a more fundamental question: what legal experiences count as law, and which methods are considered legitimate to study them?  In France and across parts…

Introduction Welcome to the Rethinking Legal Research in and with Africa blog symposium where the africanlegalstudies.blog and the Law and Development Conversations Blog join forces! This symposium emerged from the early career workshop Rethinking Legal Research in and with Africa: Legal Methods, Critical Perspectives, and Decolonial Approaches in the Context of Human Rights and Sustainable…