Africa and the Backlash Against International Courts

At the start of the twenty-first century the story of Africa'sengagement with international law was one of marked commitment and meaningfulcontributions. Africa pioneered new areas of law and legal remedies, such asinternational criminal law and universal jurisdiction, and gave human rightsjurisdiction to a number of new international courts. However, in recent years,African states have mobilised politically and collectively against the regionalcourts and the International Criminal Court, contesting these institutions'authority and legitimacy at national, regional and international levels.

Africa and the BacklashAgainst International Courts provides the firstcomprehensive account of this important phenomenon, bringing together originalfieldwork, empirical analysis and a critical overview of the diversescholarship on both international and African regional courts. Moving beyondconventional explanations, Brett and Gissel use this remarkable research toshow how the actions of African states should instead be seen as part of agrowing desire for a more equal global order; a trend that not only has hugeimplications for Africa's international relations, but that could potentiallychange the entire practice of international law.