Overview

This book interrogates the ideology and practices of liberal constitutionalism in the Zambian postcolony. The analysis focuses on the residual political and governmental effects of an imperial form of power, embodied in the person of the republican president, termed here prerogativism. Through systematic, long-term ethnographic engagement with Zambian constitutionalist activists – lawyers, judges and civic leaders – the study examines how prerogativism has shaped the postcolonial political landscape and limited the possibilities of constitutional liberalism. This is revealed in the ways that repeated efforts to reform the constitution have sidelined popular participation and thus failed to address the deep divide between a small elite stratum (from which the constitutional activists are drawn) and the marginalized masses of the population. Along the way, the study documents the intimate interpenetration of political and legal action and examines how prerogativism delimits the political engagements of elite actors. Special attention is given to the reluctance of legal activists to engage with popular politics and to the conservative ethos that undermines efforts to pursue a jurisprudence of transformational constitutionalism in the findings of the Constitutional Court. The work contributes to the rising interest in applying socio-legal analysis to the statutory domain in postcolonial jurisdictions. It offers a pioneering attempt to deconstruct the amorphous and ambivalent assemblage of ideas and practices related to constitutionalism through detailed ethnographic interrogation. It will appeal to scholars, students and practitioners with an interest in theorizing challenges to political liberalism in postcolonial contexts, as well as in rethinking the methodological toolbox of socio-legal analysis.

Full Product Details

Author:   Jeremy Gould (University of Helsinki)
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint:   Routledge
Weight:   0.789kg
ISBN:  

9781472489081

ISBN 10:   147248908
Pages:   324
Publication Date:   24 March 2023
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Not yet available  
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Table of Contents

Foreword I Preliminary issues 1 Problems and paradoxes Problems Sources and resources Paradoxes Politico-legal paradoxes Paradoxes of liberalism Presidential paradoxes Paradoxes of constitutionalism 2 Unthinking the postcolonial state Imperial liberalism and postcolonial illiberalism Constituting (post)colonial government Misreading liberal power The neopatrimonial stain Exception as an art of government A prerogativist form of power Prerogativism and the politico-legal domain The paradoxical demos Constituent vs constituted power The elusive exception 3 Constitutionalism as an ethnographic object The Zambian context Ethnographic encounters A makeshift toolkit Domains of legal knowledge Doctrinal legality Socio-legal alternatives Custom vs law The ends of law 4 Between the decision and the demos: Activist lawyers and constituent power Perspectives on postcolonial constitutionalism The time and place for legal expertise Ethics and legal expertise The prerogativist perspective The will of the people On ‘going to the people’ Reflections Legal activism and constitutionalism The paradox of non-partisan politics II A genealogy of postcolonial power 5 Imperial constitutionalism 1924–1996 Introduction From Northern Rhodesia to Zambia’s First Republic Independence constitution One-party constitution Constitutional deadlock Reactions to the 1996 constitution Popular constitutional politics 6 The Oasis Forum and the emergence of liberal constitutionalism Chiluba loses his grip Lawyers step up The legalization of the Oasis Forum The Mwanawasa years and beyond The 2016 Amendment Act Constitutional closure: The death of Bill 10 III Law, politics and unfettered power Excursus: Redescribing postcolonial power Colonial emergency and postcolonial jurisprudence The president’s two bodies The monarch’s colonial regent A profile of imperial power Adventures of prerogativism in space/time 7 ‘Lawfully illegal’ Part I: A tale of two trials The specter of presidentialism The spoils of security Act 1: Deposing the DPP Politics of governance Act 2: Trials of a president The matrix of plunder One crime, two verdicts Part II: The paradoxical sovereignty of the postcolony Innocence and guilt The case for executive interference The president’s (not quite) two bodies revisited 8 In the shadows of prerogativism Managing the migration of power A slippery baton A tale of two tribunals Disciplining the Patriotic Front Legalism vs political contingency Dora Siliya’s electoral blues In the name of exception: The Kabimba Tribunal Wynter Kabimba’s stationary collision The contours of postcolonial legality 9 The allure of postcolonial legality Principled pragmatism revisited A time to sow: The seeds of prerogativism Nolle controversies Unfettered discretion? A time to reap Liberal absurdities Progress vs purpose IV A new hope? 10 Decolonizing the republic A constituent presidency? Another missed opportunity A transformative jurisprudence? Professor Munalula dissents Law’s purposes The power of principles A postliberal legality? Postliberal trajectories 11 Coda The limits of liberal legality A constituent politics of refounding? The incrementalist option The case for a progressive postliberalism In closing Annexes Source materials Index

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Author Information

Jeremy Gould is Professor of Development and International Cooperation, University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Professor Gould’s research interests revolve around the socio-legal dynamics of post-colonial state formation. He has published widely on this and related areas.

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