A Theory on Africanizing International Law

Abstract

What is African about African international law? The main aim of this book is to answer this question by developing a theory to explain how and why international law is Africanized. The book argues that this process of Africanization of international law may be understood as a collective effort to imagine and organize an international legalpolitical project based on a continentally-defined identity. Specifically, the book explains the process through which different legal-political arrangements based on an African identity increasingly structure and become part of international law making and implementation in Africa. This includes explaining how Africanization relates both to the extent of continental norm setting by the Organization of African Unity and later the African Union, as the principal agent responsible for ‘African solutions to African problems’, and to the degree to which this African International Organization enforces these norms through varied continental accountability mechanisms. In this specific context, the book considers the different modalities through which the idea of Africa shapes, is shaped by and is embedded in international law making and implementation.