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Judicial Systems of Sub-Saharan Africa: An Analysis of Neglect

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

Karen A. Mingst
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Extract

Judicial research from a cross-national perspective has been a relatively neglected subject among American scholars. Since the founding of Law and Society Review, approximately twenty-two articles have appeared on comparative judicial topics, with one issue (summer 1978) devoted exclusively to a European sociology of law. Of these articles, five address African problems. In fifteen years of International and Comparative Law Quarterly, only seven articles treat the African judiciary. A perusal of the British Journal of Law and Society reveals a similar neglect of the cross-national perspective. More revealing, in two of the respected comparative politics journals, Comparative Politics and Comparative Political Studies, only 0.3 percent of the total number of articles published between 1968 and 1981 dealt with judicial systems. Out of twenty-nine subject headings, courts and constitutions finished in a tie for last place-only 7.1 percent of all articles (Sigelman and Gadbois, 1983: 293-94).

Unfortunately, the journals specializing in African affairs offer us no more enlightenment about judicial systems on that continent. While the prestigious Journal of Modern African Studies has published approximately ten articles on judicial issues, the other journals have been decidedly remiss. Two specialized journals are devoted to the topic: Journal of African Law and African Law Studies. Competent articles have been published in these outlets but, due to their general inaccessability, they have failed to become part of the research knowledge on African political systems.

Why has there been a relative neglect of cross-national studies of the African judiciary? This article first provides explanations for why these institutions have not enjoyed scholarly visibility.

Type
Focus On
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 31 , Issue 1 , April 1988 , pp. 135 - 148
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1988

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