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UCT RESEARCH REPORT 2012
Accountable Government in
Africa: Perspectives from Public
Law and Political Studies
Thebookbrings together anumberof leadingexperts inthe
fields of public law, political science and democratisation
studies to discuss problems of accountability, identify ways
of making African governments accountable and describe
the extent to which these mechanisms work in practice.
Thus it presents new knowledge about legal and political
developments in a number of African countries that is
relevant to the policy goal of developing and deepening
democratic governance and accountable government on
the continent.
Accountable Government in Africa
will be
of interest to academics, students and practitioners in the
fields of public law, public administration, political studies
and African studies, as well as anyone who has an interest
in developing and deepening democratic governance
and accountable government on the African continent.
African Perspectives on
Tradition and Justice
This volume aims to produce a better understanding
of the relationship between tradition and justice in
Africa. It presents six contributions of African scholars
related to current international discourses on access
to justice and human rights and on the localisation of
transitional justice.
Books Published
in 2012
Danwood Chirwa and Lia Nijzink
Tom Bennett, Eva Brems, Giselle Corradi, Lia Nijzink
and Martien Schotsmans
The contributions suggest that access to justice
and appropriate, context-specific transitional justice
strategies need to consider diversity and legal
pluralism. In this sense, they all stress that dialogical
approaches are the way forward. Whether it is in
the context of legal reforms, transitional processes
in post-war societies or the promotion of human
rights in general, all contributors accentuate that it
is by means of co-operation, conversation and cross-
fertilisation between different legal realities that
positive achievements can be realised.
The contributions in this book illustrate the
perspectives on this dialectical process from those
operating on the ground, and more specifically from
Sierra Leone, Mozambique, Malawi, South Africa,
Uganda and Rwanda. Obviously, the contributions in
this volume do not provide the final outcome of the
debate. Rather, they are part of it.