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American Law Teachers and Africa: Some Historical Observations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

James C. N. Paul
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Extract

In 1961 Tony Allott, then a rather young elder statesman of African law, helped to foster my interest in that subject, and my subsequent work in Ethiopia. He and several other distinguished colleagues in London also encouraged other American initiatives to assist the development of legal education and research in Africa, efforts which began in 1962, burgeoned during the ensuing decade, and then withered rapidly.

The activities of the early 60s helped to generate an extraordinary number of different kinds of projects: the temporary placement of over 150 Americans in law teaching positions in African institutions; a large and wide variety of research and writing; the founding of law reporters, law journals and university institutes of African law, both within Africa and elsewhere; the flow of a substantial number of Africans to graduate legal studies in U.S. and U.K. universities; new kinds of interactions between African, British and American scholars. These activities also contributed to the emergence (notably in North America) of that amorphous, contentious field of scholarship which came to be called “law and development”, and, then, in the latter 70s, to acrimonious critiques and agonising reappraisals of much of all this effort.

Tony Allott participated in, or observed, much of this history, as anyone familiar with his career and bibliography will know. I hope that this brief account of some of these past activities may be of some interest to him, and to others interested in law and social change in Africa.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of African Law , Volume 31 , Issue 1-2: Essays in Honour of A. N. Allott , Spring 1987 , pp. 18 - 28
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1987

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References

1 For some earlier accounts of various aspects of this history see Bainbridge's, J. S. informative monograph The Study and Teaching of Law in Africa (1972)Google Scholar and Johnstone, Q., “American Assistance to Africans Legal Education,” 1972 46 Tulane L. Rev. 657Google Scholar, which also contains an exhaustive bibliography of relevant materials. Some of what is written here is derived from Paul, J. C. N. “American Teachers in Africa Universities: the Case of Law,” a comment written at the invitation of the American African Studies Association and published in its Issue: A Quarterly Journal of Africanist Opinion, 1977 7, No 2Google Scholar and Paul, “African Legal Studies,” a “state of the art” paper prepared at the invitation of the Canadian Association of African Studies and published in Into the 80's: Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual Conference of the Canadian Association of African Studies (1981) and Chapters 1, 13 and 14Google Scholar (co-authored by C.J. Dias and myself) in Dias, , Luckham, , Lynch, and Paul, (eds) Lawyers in the Third World: Comparative and Developmental Perspectives, 1981Google Scholar.

2 See Allott, A., “Development for What? False Gods and Holy Writ,” Third World Legal Studies-1984: Human Rights and Development, 1984Google Scholar.

3 See Paul, “Developing Human Rights for Development by and for People” in ibid.

4 Arthur Schiller was one notable exception. For his view of the field in the early 60s see his chapter entitled “Law” in Lystad, (ed.) The African World 1965Google Scholar (which also contains an interesting bio-note on this unusual scholar).

5 See Sutton, F. X. “Africa and Latin America (excerpt from work in progress, a history of the Ford Foundation's international activities)” published in Twenty Years After: The Conference at Arden House, 09 1986 (xeroxed materials). As to this conference see text below at n. 63Google Scholar.

6 International Commission of Jurists, African Conference on the Rule of Law, Lagos, Nigeria, 01, 1961Google Scholar.

7 See Bainbridgc, , n. 1, and Journal of African Law “Notes” p. 1 (1962)Google Scholar for accounts of the Accra meeting on legal education. The report of Lord Denning's “Committee on Legal Education for Scholars from Africa” was published as Cmnd 1255, 1961; it called for establishment of indigenous law schools; see also Denning, , “Legal Education in Africa: Sharing our Cultural Heritage,” 1961 58 Law Society Gazette 147Google Scholar; Gower, L. C. B. “Preliminary Report on Legal Education in Africa” (1962) (unpublished but widely circulated)Google Scholar.

8 See UNESCO, The Development of Higher Education in Africa. Report of the Conference. Tananarive, 09, 1962Google Scholar.

9 See Paul, , “Legal Education in English Speaking Africa” 1962 15 J. Legal Education 189Google Scholar. Cf. Twining, W. L. “English Law in Africa” 1962 7 J. Society of Pub. Teachers of Law 80Google Scholar; Johnstone, , “American Participation in East Africa Legal Education” 1964 16 J. Legal Education 312; Gower, above, n. 7Google Scholar.

10 Bainbridge, n. 1.

11 Ibid. During the early '60s Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Business School and Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Public Administration both recruited and placed some young lawyers in various administrative posts in East and West Africa.

12 See Bainbridge and Johnstone, n. 1.

13 I served as a consultant to the Peace Corps during 1961–63 and prepared a number of reports (on the basis of exploratory trips) on opportunities for placement of law-trained volunteers. I subsequently helped to screen applicants for these positions; their qualifications were uniformly high, and many went on to contribute outstanding service and scholarship. It has been estimated that a total of 74 volunteers were placed in law-type work, 36 in law teaching. See Johnstone, n. 1.

14 See e.g. Douglas, W. O., “Lawyers of the Peace Corps” 1962 48 A B A J. 409Google Scholar.

15 At least four SAILER-ILC sponsored teachers served in Francophone Africa. See Johnstone, n. l.

16 See ibid, which collects much of this literature.

17 See Vol. 1 of the African Law Reports (introduction).

18 See Ewing, W. “Some Observations on Ethiopian Legislative Development 1942–1969” in Proceedings of First U.S. conference of Ethiopian Studies, 1975Google Scholar. See also Consolidated Laws of Ethiopia, 1972 (introduction)Google Scholar.

19 See Thompson, C. F., “The Sources of Law in the New Nations of Africa: a case study from the Republic of Sudan” in Hutchinson, (ed.) Africa and Law, 1967Google Scholar.

20 Accounts of many of the kinds of conferences and workshops in Africa during this period can be found in Bainbridge op. cit., n. 1. See also e.g., Gluckman, M. (ed.) Ideas and Procedures in African Customary Law, 1969Google Scholar, containing studies discussed at an international seminar held at the Faculty of Law, Haile Sellassie University, 01, 1966Google Scholar; Vanderlinden, J. (ed.) Proceedings of the Conference on Legal Education in Africa, Addis Ababa, 1968Google Scholar.

21 For some, different kinds of indications of interactions between American, English, and Africans, see Vanderlinden, above. See also, e.g., “Education Within East Africa” in Twining, W. L., “Legal Education Within East Africa” in British Institute of International and Comparative Law, East African Law Today, 1966Google Scholar. Cf. Hiller, J. and Sawyerr, G. F. A., The Doctrine of Precedent in the East African Court of Appeals, 1970Google Scholar (British and American concepts of “precedent” and “over-ruling” discussed in relation to African contexts).

22 See “Conference of American Teachers of African Law and Law and Modernization, 1970,” (xeroxed materials compiled by the ILC reflecting the kinds of courses taught and research interests).

23 The ILC sponsored various kinds of initiatives intended to strengthen legal education in India and several Latin American countries. The Latin American initiatives, many funded by U.S. AID, proved difficult (see, Steiner, H., “Legal Education and Socio-Economic Changes: Brazilian Perspectives” 1971 19 American L. of Comp. Law 39Google Scholar, and later very contentious; see Gardiner, J., Legal Imperialism: American Lawyers and Foreign Aid in Latin America, 1981Google Scholar. Similarly the prevailing view was that there was very little opportunity for innovative work by Americans in India. See Mehran, A. Von, “Law and Legal Education in India: Some Observations,” 1964 78 Harvard L. Rev. 305Google Scholar.

24 See Sutton, above, n. 5. Cf. Nyerere, J.Address at the Dedication of University College, Dar-es- Salaam, 1964Google Scholar; Kaunda, K. “The Functions of the Lawyers Today” 1972 3 Zambia L.J. 1Google Scholar. The Emperor Haile Sellassie encouraged the founding of the Law School in Ethiopia and American efforts to support it. Nkrumah was, perhaps, always suspicious of the Law Faculty of the University of Accra, but it seems probable that he “blessed” the appointment of W. B. Harvey as its second Dean and then lived to regret the action. See Sutton, above.

25 Cf. Dias, C. J. and Paul, J. C. N., “Lawyers, Legal Professions, Modernization and Development”, chapter 1 of Lawyers in the Third World, n. 1Google Scholar.

26 These were overwhelmingly the recollections of many of those who participated in SAILER, ILC and Peace Corps programmes as revealed at the Arden House conference, sec n. 5, above.

27 See n. 8, above. Cf. Habison, F. and Myers, C. A., Education, Manpower and Economic Growth: Strategies of Human Resource Development, 1964Google Scholar.

28 For a classic discussion of this view, see Schafler, B. B., “The Deadlock of Development Administration” in Leys, C. (ed.) Politics and Change in Developing Countries, 1969Google Scholar.

29 Independent Africa: The Challenge to the Legal Profession, 1968Google Scholar.

30 “The Crafts of Law Revalued,” 1942 15 Rocky Mountain L. Rev. 3. Llewelly's concepts of “roles” and “skills” were discussed in much of the literature. Cf. Twining, above n. 21; Hiller, J. A., “Reconstructing Law Teaching Programs in Developing African Countries” 1975 11 E. A. L. J. 69Google Scholar.

31 ”The Role of Law and the Function of the Lawyer in Developing Countries”, 1963 17 Vanderbilt L. Rev. 18Google Scholar. During the '60s Friedmann taught a number of seminars on public corporations and foreign investment in various African countries.

32 Cf. the chapters on various African legal professions in Lawyers in the Third World, above, n. 1, and the synthesis, chapter 13.

33 See e.g., Hiller, , above, n. 30, and various papers in Vanderlinden, (ed.) op. cit., n. 20Google Scholar.

34 U.S. AID became briefly interested in legal education and law in Latin America in the late 60's. See Hoskins, , United States Technical Assistance for Legal Modernization 1970 56 A.B.A.J. 1160Google Scholar.

35 Sutton, above, n. 5; see text at n. 64.

36 Johnstone, above, n. 1.

37 See e.g. Schiller, above, n. 4 and ILC, n. 22.

38 Cf. Seidman, , “Law and Economic Development in Independent English Speaking Africa” first published in 1966, reprinted in Hutchinson, (ed.) African and Law, 1967Google Scholar.

39 See Hoskins, , above, n. 34; Johnstone, , n. 1. Mark Galanter wrote an interesting “working paper” for the Yale programme which carefully analysed the themes and assumption in the “Law and development” literature. Another notable product was Brun-Otto Bryde's monograph The Politics and Sociology of African Legal Development, 1976Google Scholar.

40 See chapter 1 of Lawyers in the Third World, n. 1, above.

41 Cf. Ghai, Y. P., “Legal Radicalism, Professionalism and Social Action: Reflections on Teaching Law in Dar Es Salaam” in Shivji, (ed.) Limits of Legal Radicalism, 1987Google Scholar: a provocative essay on the tension between teaching radical social critiques of law and the skills necessary for one to be an effective radical lawyer.

42 Johnstone, n. 1, above.

43 Ibid.

44 International Legal Center, Legal Education in A Changing World, 1975Google Scholar.

45 William Twining discussed some of the questions for research set out in the report in his Taylor lecture in at the University of Lagos; See also Twining, and Uglow, J. (eds) Legal Literature in Small Jurisdictions, 1978Google Scholar, a collection of studies which highlights some of the difficulties of developing legal education in Africa.

46 W. L. Twining, Yash Ghai and myself.

47 International Legal Center, Law and Development: The Future of Law and Development Research, 1974Google Scholar.

48 A notable and influential “Methodological Issues in the Study of Development” which was originally published in Sociolgia Ruralis 1972 XII, No 3, and republished in various formats during 1973Google Scholar.

49 Cf. Frank, A. G., Capitalism and Underdevelopment in Latin America, 1969Google Scholar.

50 A notable illustration is Dudley Seers famous 1969 essay on “The Meaning of Development”, 1969 11Google Scholar International Development Rev. 2 and republished in various forms during the early 70s.

51 McNamara, R. J., Address to the Board of Governors, in Nairobi, Kenya, 09, 1973Google Scholar.

52 Myrdal, G., Asian Drama: an Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations (first published in 1968 and republished in condensed paperback form in 1972 by Vintage Books)Google Scholar. See also Myrdal, , “The 'Soft State' in Underdeveloped Countries” 1968 15 UCLA Law Rev. 1118Google Scholar.

53 I expressed these views in a review essay of Bryde's book (above, 39) in 1978 26 American J. Comp. Law 500Google Scholar.

54 Some publications generated by these workshops include Ghai, Y. P. (ed.) Law in the Political Economy of African Public Enterprise: African Perspectives, 1977Google Scholar; McAuslam, J. P. W. B. and Kanyeihamba, G. W. (eds) Urban Legal Problems in East Africa, 1978Google Scholar; Luckham, R. (ed.) Law and Social Enquiry: Case Studies of Research, 1981Google Scholar.

55 Friedman, L. M., “On Legal Development”, 1969 24 Rutgers L. Rev. 10Google Scholar.

56 Snyder, F. G., “Law and Development in the Light of Dependency Theory” 1980 14 Law and Society Rev. 3.Google Scholar

57 Merryman, J., “Comparative Law and Social Change: on the Origin, Style, Decline and Revival of the Law and Development Movement” 1977 25 American J. Comp. L. 457Google Scholar.

58 Trubek, D. and Galanter, M., “Scholars in Self-Estrangement: Some Reflections on the Crisis in Law and Development Studies in the United States”, 1979, Wis. L. Rev. 1062Google Scholar. This article was translated into French, and it circulated widely in Europe.

59 ICLD received much of its initial support from SAREC in Sweden, and SAREC commissioned a report on ICLD in 1982 which was later published. See Shanmgaratnam, N., The International Center for Law in Development: SAREL Report No. 1, 1984Google Scholar.

60 Hager has described IDLI in a paper to be published in a forthcoming volume of Third World Legal Studies on “Teaching about Law in the Processes of 'Development'”.

61 See his introduction to Third World Legal Studies in 1982: Law in Alternative Strategies of Rural Development.

62 See e.g. the successive volumes of Third World Legal Studies. The first is cited above; the 1983Google Scholar volume was entitled Foreign Investment in the Light of the New International Economic Order, 1984Google Scholar was Human Rights and Development; 1985Google Scholar was Developing Legal Resources with the Third World Poor, 1986Google Scholar is tentatively entitled “Generating and Sharing Knowledge for People-Centered Development”.

63 See Twenty Years After, n. 5. This volume is a valuable resource to trace much of the work and writing done by Americans who taught in Africa, and their present reflections on the effort.

64 See n. 5, above.