Creating an Anti-Corruption Norm in Africa: Critical Reflections on Legal Instrumentalization for Development

Abstract This article reflects critically on the instrumental value of law in the anti-corruption struggle in Africa. Three questions are central to this reflection: (a) Is the instrumental use of law to achieve a developmental purpose, such as anti-corruption, defensible in theory and practice? (b) Is law necessary to, and/or adequate for, the creation of an anti-corruption norm? (c) Why do the developing countries perform so poorly in the fight against corruption in comparison with their wealthier, industrialized counterparts? While the article defends the instrumentalization of law in this regard, it argues that the African normative context of corruption throws up peculiar challenges. The article suggests that these challenges must be confronted in order to liberate the full potential of law in the struggle against corruption

Human Rights, The Rule of Law, and Development in Africa & Human Rights Under African Constitutions: Realizing the Promise for Ourselves

Paul Tiyambe Zeleza & Philip J. McConnaughay, eds., Human Rights, The Rule of Law, and Development in Africa & Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na’im, ed., Human Rights Under African Constitutions: Realizing the Promise for Ourselve

When Law Fails: A Theory of Self-Enforcing Anti-Corruption Legislation in Africa

The resort to legal measures to combat corruption in Africa is almost universal. But the effectiveness of law in controlling criminal or anti-social behavior is not a given; rather it is contingent. This article argues that, given the peculiarities of the African society, legal measures that aim to control corruption, to become effective, must first become self-enforcing, based on democratic incentives for attitudinal change among the populace.

The health case for economic and social rights against the gobal marketplace

“All observations of life are harsh, because life is. I lament that fact, but I cannot change it.” —Margaret Atwood, The Tent (McClelland and Stewart 2006) Over the past few decades, most of the world's economies and societies have been integrated into the global marketplace, revealing and deepening various socioeconomic divisions. In this article, I undertake three major tasks. First, I outline the processes that have led to that deepening, identify the underlying set of values, and indicate the connection with influences on population health. Second, I compare and contrast a policy perspective that takes seriously economic and social rights related to health with the values of the global marketplace. Third, I argue that emerging aspects of globalization underscore the urgency of the human rights challenge to the global marketplace. I also suggest a research agenda focusing on the conditions under which governments are likely to respond in ways that strengthen their commitment to economic and social rights domestically and internationally, while at the same time offering some rather pessimistic observations about the prospects for policy change