1. Homepage
  2. Events
  3. ‣ Lawyering Imperial Encounters. Negotiating Africa’s Relationship with the World Economy

Lawyering Imperial Encounters. Negotiating Africa’s Relationship with the World Economy

Lawyering imperial encounters
  • Lecture Hall MF 1092, ‘Michel Falise’ Building, 13 rue de Toul

Book presentation, Cambridge University Press, 2024 par Sara Dezalay, Professor of international relations and international law, Université Catholique de Lille

ESPOL-Lab book release conference available in person and online!

Every year, ESPOL-Lab organises political science conferences. Free access to members of the Catholic University of Lille, and on registration for outsiders and to follow online.

Abstract

Lawyering Imperial Encounters revisits the long history of extraction between the African continent and global capitalism since the nineteenth-century Scramble. Focused on sites of imperial encounters – in London, Paris, Abidjan, Bujumbura, Kinshasa, Johannesburg or the Hague, it shows how legal intermediaries negotiate and justify Africa’s subaltern position in the global economy. Lawyering Imperial Encounters demonstrates the symbiosis between the legacy of imperialism and the detrimental societal and environmental impact of the ongoing rush for Africa’s ‘green’ minerals. It offers a powerful postcolonial critique of law’s double-bind – as both enabler and bulwark against predation.