DDRO 27A65 - An Interdisciplinary Introduction to laws in Sub-Saharan Africa

Course Description

1. COURSE DESCRIPTION

The course AN INTERDISCIPLINARY INTRODUCTION TO LAWS IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA (IILsSA) invites students for a journey into “probably today's largest living laboratory of effective legal pluralism” (J. Frémont).
This course offers a dynamic introduction to African legal complexity, focusing on present-day institutional frameworks, the content of several Sub-Saharan African legal systems*, as well as individuals' or groups' norms, practices and representations of law. Looking at institutions, links and disjunctions in the normative practices and experiences of people, students will explore the State, the legal, the magical and the just in Africa.
AN INTERDISCIPLINARY INTRODUCTION TO LAWS IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA expands on themes developed in Legal Anthropology, Law and African Studies. It relies on academic readings from legal, postcolonial and decolonial literature, policy papers and legal resources, reports published by international organizations (IOs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), as well as ethnographic inquiries. Students will address long-lasting and new legal challenges such as the reception of foreign and international laws, legal pluralism and its implications, the implementation of human rights standards, the movements of people within and beyond the African continent, and “legal/normative panfracanism”. The course also unveils race, ethnicity and kinship as criteria of membership and the limits of the principle of nationality in Africa. Additionally, students will get acquainted with the main African institutions, the Regional Economic Communities (RECs), notion(s) of governance and alternative methods of dispute settlement developed in this region, looking at examples of legal integrations, coexistence with customary authorities, state-building processes as well as institutional, judicial and constitutional evolutions.
For teaching purposes, the course is divided into three units. Unit 1 aims at introducing students to the main conceptual, theoretical, and analytical frameworks (sessions 1, 2, 3). The course also explores selected institutional settings, legal and judicial evolutions at state, regional and international levels, and their implications regarding international standards, African legal orders and peoples (unit 2: sessions 4, 5, 6, 7, 8). Unit 3 (sessions 9, 10, 11) further evaluates the role of law and individuals' lived legal experiences in fostering social changes. It addresses some definitional challenges in light of the structures of social relationships and belief systems that operate in different Sub-Saharan normative settings.
* For the sake of comparison, legal issues from the other African regions may be addressed as illustrations.

Enseignants
Ounia DOUKOURE-PECCHIOLI

Type
Séminaire

Language of tuition
English, French

Workload
2. OUTCOME

The course involves a fascinating experience that prompts students to question universalist – most often western-based – legal assumptions. It invites a rethinking of Law and its processes of creation in light of African examples.
After successful completion of the course, students will be acquainted with African legal orders and normative repertoires on the one hand, and their implications at the national, bilateral and global levels on the other. Students will also know the basics of Legal Anthropology (paradigms, terminology, and main theories), and should have a broad understanding of the grounds and challenges of the various perspectives introduced in the framework of the course. In this regard, literature which aims at decolonizing African contemporary legal challenges, is intended to help students addressing the impensés and impensables of African legal evolutions. Students are expected to be able to discuss the main arguments of this literature, keeping in mind lawyers' ultimate goal: the effectiveness of law.
This course is of interest to students concerned with the nature and operation of Law in Africa, and is valuable as a socle de connaissances for other subjects of the Europe-Africa curriculum. The course is also beneficial to students who are not registered in the Europe-Africa Program as it offers another way to engage with comparison of foreign legal systems. It indeed examines the changing conceptions of law, power and governance over time and across spaces, and the cultural dimensions of law, providing a varied reading of constitutionalism, democracy and state-building processes. Lastly, the course promotes a detached, inquisitive and critical perspective that students will ultimately use studying legal arrangements in other regions of the world.

Semester
Spring 2024-2025

Pedagogical format
Unit I.

Why an Interdisciplinary Introduction to African Laws? Long-Lasting Debates and Contemporary Challenges This unit “sets the scene” introducing the African legal complexity over time and space.

Session 1- Introductory Class: What is Law? An Interdisciplinary Approach, Some African Answers
After a brief explanation of the course methodology, requirements, and assessment, the first session introduces students to African legal complexity, questioning the terminology and the main dichotomies usually applied to African normative systems: tradition/modernity, state/non-state norms, developing/developed societies, colonial/(postcolonial) decolonial, panafricanism...

Session 2 - African Legal Pluralism: Historical & Comparative Overview of African Legal Systems
This session introduces students to an historical reading of the reception and transplants of foreign laws (Common law, Romano-Germanic law, Dutch law, European Union and International laws) in Africa. Students will discuss the Senegalese conception of laïcité.
It addresses the categorization of African legal system(s), relying on Comparative law taxonomies and the concepts of legal pluralism respectively developed in positive law and in Anthropology. Students will discuss the legal treatment of witchcraft practices in Cameroon (Criminal law), as an illustration of state recognition of legal pluralism.

Session 3 - Notions of “self, Citizenship and Legal Socialisation
This session draws on the notions of ‘self', person(hood) and the literature on legal socialisation. It introduces the terminology traditionally applicable to Africa (ethnic group, kinship, tribe, clan, diaspora, religion.. .) and their interplay with citizenship laws. Students will discuss individual/group identity building within States and beyond (African diasporas and the Beninese law granting nationality to afro-descendants).

Unit II. Law and Society: Grasping African Governances

This unit addresses the evolution of selected legal and institutional settings.

Session 4 - Creation and Transformation of States in Africa
This session addresses statehood theories as well as International Law rules and actual practices pertaining to internal and external self-determination. It questions long-lasting interrelated legal issues: State creation as part of the decolonization process (Angola) or not (Liberia), self-determination claims (Western Sahara, Somaliland), contemporary cases of transformation (South Sudan), and State internal organisation (Ethiopian ethno-federalism).

Session 5 - African Processes of Economic Integration / Harmonization
This session introduces students to African processes of economic /legal integration or harmonization, presenting the African RECs and the OHADA system. Students will discuss the impact of international legal standards (IMF, World Bank, EU external aid) or remittance (economic, legal and political aspects) on African economic governance(s), or the withdrawal of some countries.

Session 6 - Rule of Law, Human Rights and Constitutionalism in Africa
This session introduces students to the institutions of the African Union (AU) promoting and protecting human and peoples' rights, their respective mandate and their relationships with States and domestic courts: AfCHPR, African Court of Justice and Human rights, regional courts (ECOWAS court) ...

Session 7 - Natural Resources Management
This session discusses some solutions adopted for land/natural resources management and environmental challenges: role of traditional authorities, regional water/oil governance, sustainable development, climate change, land tenure and citizenship (Zimbabwe).

Session 8 - Building and Keeping Peace: Can African States Deliver ‘Pax Africana'? This session briefly addresses some armed interventions in African States (DRC, CAR) or African mechanisms of justice and reconciliation in post-conflict societies. Students will discuss the controversy over the jurisdiction of the ICC and the ICJ and African legal responses to it.

Unit III. Law and “Self”: Individuals' and Groups' Legal Identity in African Societies

This unit addresses the multiple grounds for (self-)definitions of individuals, be they legal categories as such or inducing/fostering/challenging compliance with laws or citizenship.

Session 9 - Legal Categorizations of Individuals and Groups: Selected Issues
The session compares two processes respectively defining individuals as members of a group or as members of a community of States. It introduces students to the concept of indigenousness, developed as a ground for groups' land claims, constitutional protection and financial reparations (South Africa). Students will also discuss the ECOWAS citizenship excluding dual nationals from the citizenship of ECOWAS.

Session 10 - Legal Capacity and Legal Treatment of Individuals
This session unveils how legal frameworks condition the possibility for an individual to act, his/her legal recognition or protection. It addresses either women's rights and obligations regarding marriage, inheritance and succession (Uganda, Togo) or the legal framing and phrasing of homosexuality (processes of criminalisation: Uganda, Zimbabwe / recognition of same-sex marriage: South Africa).

Session 11 - Defining Movements of People: Contemporary Challenges
This session focuses on intra- and inter-state movements of people, relying on specific issues such as: (semi)nomadic populations, refugees and IDPs (Great Lake region), African female migrants and the Kafala system in GCC+.

Session 12 - In-class Exam

4. COURSE PROCEEDINGS

Teaching Methods AN INTERDISCIPLINARY INTRODUCTION TO LAWS IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA is a bilingual course designed to capitalize on Sciences Po diverse international student body, and to prepare them to serve their equally varied international community.
For that reason, academic content is taught in French and English, relying on resources in both languages. This requires that all enrolled students understand, speak and write some amount of French (niveau B1) and English (B1 level) during the course. This course also calls for positioning identity in view of the topics, the context of the legal issues, data collection and data analysis that are discussed (methodology of positionality, decolonizing African studies).
Teaching is essentially student-run: the discussions will be advanced and structured by the lectures but students are strongly invited to contribute their thoughts and understanding of the session. Students are therefore required to attend the classes, to read the assigned documents that will be provided beforehand and to prepare a response paper on the session readings (see “assessment” section).

Prospective Guests
Guest lecturers may be invited so that students can be acquainted with different approaches towards the topics, as well as actual challenges in their respective area of expertise.
Students are strongly encouraged to attend these lectures if they cannot be scheduled in the framework of the course.
Assessment
Response paper for each session (individual preparation)
To facilitate active participation, positioning identity, and critical engagement with the documents, students are strongly encouraged to prepare a 1-page response paper on the weekly readings and lectures as a written basis for discussions in class. This must follow the format prescribed at the beginning of the course and may be evaluated on form and content (class participation).
15-minute presentation (compulsory group assignment)

Pairs of students are required to deliver a 15-minute presentation addressing a specific prescribed question relating to the corresponding session (either a current issue or a particular case). Students are expected to show their capacity to cooperate and work in pair, and to demonstrate their ability to engage (and even to influence) the audience relying on a well-structured, clear and confident presentation. The list and dates of presentations and the methodology guidelines are provided at the beginning of the course.

Critical text analysis or Case-Note (compulsory individual home assignment)

Mid-term assignment: selected assignment + language to be confirmed by session 3

Students are required to turn in a 1500-word paper covering the mid-term program, either a critical analysis of one of the articles or book sections of the course reading material or the summary and critical commentary of a judicial decision. This assignment should reflect students' understanding of the content of the course: overarching concepts (typologies, terminologies), institutional settings or normative repertoires, as well as legal issues and evolutions addressed in class.
The review should carefully summarize the major argument(s) of the selected piece and critically analyze the idea(s) advanced by the author(s) taking into consideration discussions in class and readings, especially those from the concerned unit.
The case-note should summarize the decision and convey your understanding in your own words, covering the major aspects of the judgment, including background information, main arguments presented, decision and reason for decision.
Students must comply with proper standards of scholarly citation as well as correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Methodology guidelines are provided at the beginning of the course.
Papers will be mailed in using Urkund AND physically handed in on the scheduled date (session 7). Late papers will be penalized (1 point per day of delay after the due date).

In-class final exam (2-hour closed-book exam): session 12 Selected assignment and language to be confirmed at the beginning of the course
Students are required to write a critical essay discussing a compulsory question related to the course. The paper should reflect the student's ability to clearly articulate and logically develop an argument or idea, using the French standards (dissertation juridique) or the CLEO method (English legal writing). They should refer to relevant scholarly literature and legal resources to support their claim. Students must comply with proper academic standards of citation. Methodology guidelines are provided at the beginning of the course.
Grading In-class final exam: 50% of the final grade
Home mid-term assignment: 25% of the final grade
15-minute presentation: 25% of the final grade
Class participation: up to 10% on the final grade.
Academic Dishonesty and Plagiarism
The various exercises assigned throughout the semester aim at deepening students' understanding of the interrelated issues at stake and at developing correct uses of sources. Students are strongly invited to contact me as soon as possible if they struggle with academic rules (using sources, citations rules…) or feel overwhelmed with the workload.
Improper collaborating on assignments, cheating on an in-class exam, academic dishonesty and plagiarism will be graded 00/20 and reported to Sciences Po administration.
For further information, please refer to Sciences Po “Academic Rules and Regulations”, adopted by the Executive Committee of Sciences Po on 20 June 2011 (http://master.sciences-po.fr/sites/default/files/reglsco_fr.pdf ) and visit http://www.urkund.com/int/en