An African Approach to 'Law and Development'

What is it about?

The rhetoric of the rule of law as a prerequisite for a sustained development has been around for many decades. Literature abounds in this sense and this state of affairs gives to today’s initiatives of institutional reform a feeling of replicas of past policies. The early 1980s was another period of international institutions’ active push for law reforms, especially in the developing world, mainly as conditions for continued financial assistance. The phenomenon of ‘globalisation’, which was met by the surge of regional trade alliances also added a fresh look at the debate. Globalisation, coupled with the need of so-called developing countries to integrate their economies into the global market considerably accentuated the postulate of development through law.

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Why is it important?

An important characteristic of an enabling environment for wealth creation is that the law facilitates rather than constrains entrepreneurial activities. Law is expected to improve the security of property rights (by protecting the principal investment and the earnings derived therefrom), minimise the risk associated with investment (especially ‘long-term investment’) and pave the way for more mutually beneficial trade and exchanges. Against this backdrop some African countries, at the dawn of the 1990s, initiated a ‘modernisation’ process of their legal systems, for the major part inherited from colonialism, which were perceived to be no longer suited for the challenges of the globalisation of markets.

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