Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 3 of 3
Full-Text Articles in Law
The Ideology Of Human Rights, Makau Wa Mutua
The Ideology Of Human Rights, Makau Wa Mutua
Makau Mutua
This piece argues that although human rights is an ideology although it presents itself as non-ideological, non-partisan, and universal. It contends that the human rights corpus, taken as a whole, as a document of ideals and values, particularly the positive law of human rights, requires the construction of states to reflect the structures and values of governance that derive from Western liberalism, especially the contemporary variations of liberal democracy practiced in Western democracies. Viewed from this perspective, the human rights regime has serious and dramatic implications for questions of cultural diversity, the sovereignty of states, and the universality of human …
Jeremy I. Levitt's Africa: Mapping New Boundaries In International Law (Book Review), Makau Mutua
Jeremy I. Levitt's Africa: Mapping New Boundaries In International Law (Book Review), Makau Mutua
Makau Mutua
This is a review of Jeremy Levitt’s edited collection of chapters in Africa: Mapping the Boundaries of International Law, which is an impressive work to the dearth of scholarship on Africa’s contribution to the normative substance and theory of international law. The book explicitly seeks to counter the racist mythology that Africans were tabula rasa in international law. In his own introduction to the book, Levitt makes it clear that “Africa is a legal marketplace, not a lawless basket case.” The eight contributors to the book are renowned scholars who make the case that Africa is not stuck in pre-history …
Justice Under Siege: The Rule Of Law And Judicial Subservience In Kenya, Makau Mutua
Justice Under Siege: The Rule Of Law And Judicial Subservience In Kenya, Makau Mutua
Makau Mutua
The piece examines the tortured history of the judiciary in Kenya and concludes that various governments have deliberately robbed judges of judicial independence. As such, the judiciary has become part and parcel of the culture of impunity and corruption. This was particularly under the one party state, although nothing really changed with the introduction of a more open political system. The article argues that judicial subservience is one of the major reasons that state despotism continues to go unchallenged. It concludes by underlining the critical role that the judiciary has to play in a democratic polity.