A collection of interdisciplinary essays about access to justice in Burundi, Ghana, Tanzania, South Africa, Sudan and Britain showing the need to recognise that each culture has its own sense of rule of law and highlighting the importance of the perceptions of the litigants and court personnel. BNS, 250pp, NETHERLANDS. E J BRILL.

An attempt to move away from punitive theories of justice to a more informal approach to conflict resolution. The author looks at both restorative justice and conventional formal approaches and considers what each can offer, especially in the context of accountability. The author examines the experiences of restorative justice in 25 programmes in six countries; Canada, South Africa, USA, UK, Australia, and New Zealand. Index, refs, apps, notes, xv, 316pp, UK. OXFORD UNIV PRESS, 0199259356

The principal aim of this work is to provide a forum for leading international lawyers with experience and interest in Africa to address a broad range of intellectual challenges concerning the contribution of African states and peoples to international law. As such, the volume addresses orthodox topics of international law such as jurisdiction and intervention but tackles them from an African perspective, and seeks to ask whether, in each case, the African perspec-tive is unique or affirms existing arrangements of international law. Index, bib, 338pp, UK. HART PUBLISHING LTD.

The African continent exceeds in size and natural resources the combined territories of Europe, the United States and China. Yet most Africans struggle just to survive. The authors of Africa's Challenge describe the experiences of different African countries, underscoring the need to use law to transform Africa's inherited institutions. Without sensible legal change, Africa will suffer the consequences of inherited systems built ramshackle and on the fly according to principles of individual greed and ad hoc manipulation. The essays contained herein offer practical critiques of a problem that has plagued a continent. Index, 228pp, USA. AFRICA WORLD PRESS.

The seventh in a series of annual volumes reviewing the principal legal developments taking place in the countries of Southern Africa. Index, notes, bib, xxi, 384pp, UK. REX COLLINGS. 0860360342

1977 Hardback

First published by the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute, this revised edition remains a rare study of criminology in the African context, considered from a pan-African perspective. Some topics covered include traditional, colonial and present days administration of criminal justice; the problems associated with criminal justice in Madagascar; state violence in Uganda; a case study of corruption in Nigeria; criminal politics in Cameroon; drug trafficking and abuse; homicide in Sierra Leone; youth and crime; the relationship between migration, crime and delinquency; and violence as a weapon of the dispossessed. A final chapter considers the state of teaching and research in the field of criminology in Africa. The contributions are in both English and French. BNS, 285pp, UGANDA. FOUNTAIN PUBLISHERS.

A collection of essays constructing a history of prisons in Africa. Topics include punishments, living conditions, ethnic mapping, contemporary prison camps and the political use of prison from the slave trade to the Rwandan genocide. The authors also looks at the historical development of incarceration in Africa, from being a relatively unknown punishment in pre-colonial times to its widespread use during colonisation and its continuing use by modern states. Index, bib, notes, b/w illus, x, 287pp, USA. HEINEMANN USA INC, 032507125X

Ranges widely over topics as diverse as cultural property, coups d'etat and the plunder of antiquities, formalities of marriage; child betrothal, divorce, sororate marriage, levirate marriage; succession and inheritance, oral will, and administration of estate. xv, 256pp. index. GERMANY. LIT VERLAG.

1998 3825840093 Paperback

While law and development discourse has dealt with international poverty, advocates of poverty reduction usually operate within a nation-state context. This book provides a new framework for the future theoretical development of international poverty law. It also explores specific human rights initiatives that address particular aspects of poverty, including human rights conventions, measures to counter the tendency of intellectual property law to undermine food security, the right to food as framed in UN development documents, and the startlingly important develop-ment in South Africa of an alternative vision of constitutional law. The contributors position international poverty law as a legitimate field for multidisciplinary research and dialogue, and open up new arenas for international poverty law to contribute to addressing poverty reduction. Index, bib, 250pp, UK. ZED BOOKS.

Are postcolonies haunted more by criminal violence than other nation-states? The usual answer is yes. In this collection, Jean and John Comaroff and a group of respected theorists show that the question is misplaced: that the predicament of postcolonies arises from their place in a world order dominated by new modes of governance, new sorts of empires, new species of wealth and order that criminalizes poverty and race, entraps the south in relations of corruption, and displaces politics into the realms of the market, criminal economies, and the courts. Index, 357pp, USA. UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS.

Using both pre-industrial and modern settings, the author examines the tension between the idea of law as an attempt to regulate society, and these attempts at control being only temporary and incomplete with consequences that are not fully predictable. Bib, index, xxx, 270pp, UK. JAMES CURREY, 0852559100

Access to land and property is vital to people's livelihoods in rural, peri-urban, and urban areas in Africa. People exert tremendous energy to have land claims recognized as rights with a variety of political, administrative, and legal institutions. This book provides a detailed analysis of how public authority and the state are formed through debates and struggles over property in the Upper East Region of Ghana. While scarcity may indeed promote exclusivity, the evidence from this book shows that when there are many institutions competing for the right to authorize claims to land, the result of an effort to unify and clarify the law is to intensify competition among them and weaken their legitimacy. The book explores how state divestiture of land in 1979 encouraged competition between customary authorities and how the institution of the earth-priest was revived. Index, bib, 200pp, UK. CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS.

Drawing on material from Africa, the Caribbean, North and South America and Europe, the authors reflect on the experiences of people of African descent to offer a convergence of criminologies in and outside the West. Also investigates whether Western criminological accounts are relevant to the comprehension of crime, criminality and systems of justice in Africa, the Caribbean and South America. Index, ix, refs, 266pp, UK. ASHGATE PUBLISHERS.075461882X

Explains the terms, concepts and rules of humanitarian law in accessible and reader friendly A-Z entries. Outlines the dangers, spells out the law and points the way toward dealing with violators. BNS, 489pp, UK. ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, 0742510638

An introduction to the issue of intellectual property rights discussing in particular the privatisation of ideas and traditional knowledge for the benefit of corporations. Refs, 146pp, UK. ZED BOOKS, 1842771094

A study about the ambit of criminal law identifying the international legal issues arising when a state exercises extraterritorial jurisdiction. The author brings together detailed accounts of universal jurisdiction in fourteen countries including Senegal, the UK, the USA, Australia, France and Israel. BNS, 286pp, UK. OXFORD UNIV PRESS, 0199274266