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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The Rule of Law, Democracy and Human Rights: Whither Africa?
Author:Gutto, Shadrack B.O.ISNI
Year:1997
Periodical:East African Journal of Peace and Human Rights (ISSN 1021-8858)
Volume:3
Issue:1
Pages:130-139
Language:English
Notes:biblio. refs.
Geographic term:Africa
Subjects:democracy
rule of law
human rights
Law, Human Rights and Violence
Politics and Government
law
social justice
political participation
Justice, Administration of
Abstract:Taking the human rights evolution in the second half of the 20th century as a starting point, the author critically reviews the inherited notions and theories of the State underlying the traditional liberal theory of rule of law. He underlines the incomplete characterization of the rule of law represented in the Diceyan tradition, and points out its class and gender-blindness and insensitivity. Using the African context and its challenges, the author identifies the tension between the phenomenon of legality and the legitimacy of the inherited and superimposed theory vis-à-vis the reality of law. He is also concerned with an analysis of the constraints created by the postcolonial authoritarian State under the conditions of primitive capitalistic accumulation that prevail on the continent. The author suggests that the illegitimacy and crisis of the State and society in Africa within the current global conjecture require a reconstruction of society and the theory of the rule of law to incorporate social justice and increased formal participation of the organized non-State sections of the citizenry. Ref.
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