“A sophisticated and thoughtful publication, exploring how international law has been ‘Africanized’, what ‘Africa’ means in this context, the role of the Organization of African Unity and now African Union, and how ‘African international law’ can provide African solutions to African problems. This will be of great interest not only to practitioners and academics on the continent, but also provides detailed and valuable insights for scholars and practitioners outside Africa in appreciating the contributions Africa, in its broadest sense, has made to the development of international law.”
“This is a much-needed book in an important but under-researched area of study. The subject matter of this exhaustively researched work effectively explores international law from the lenses of legal and normative developments in Africa. Furthermore, the book excellently explores how Africa and the African Union influence and are influenced by international law. The book is highly recommended to policymakers, practitioners, researchers and global actors that interact with Africa.”
“Thought-provoking and a veritable invitation to critical interrogation of what we know as ‘African International Law’. Micha Wiebusch raises the bar several notches. A good place to start.”
“A comprehensive and insightful study of the norms, actors and processes involved in Africanizing international law. The analysis builds on the author’s illuminating scholarship on the African Union and the region’s human rights system, as well as his extensive practical experience. An important resource for scholars, government officials, and legal practitioners seeking to understand how and why international law is or becomes Africanized.”
“Well-written book. Interesting, topical and likely to stimulate debate. I enjoyed the artwork too.”
“In this book, Micha Wiebusch tackles an extremely important, and yet understudied aspect of international law, namely the Africanisation of international law. It is only through this kind of study, that international law can be freed from its shackles of being a legal system made in Europe, for the Europeans and with the aim of furthering Europe’s dominance. This is an important step for a truly universal international law.”
“This seminal work critically explores the Africanization of international law, offering profound insights into how legal norms and frameworks are uniquely adapted within the African context. Through an interdisciplinary approach that engages with governance, co-production, and development, Micha Wiebusch provides a nuanced understanding of the continent’s legal realities and contributions to the decolonization of international law. An essential read for those interested in the intersection of international law and regional governance in Africa.”
“Wiebusch’s conceptual masterpiece on the Africanization of international law and continental norm setting by the African Union offers important insights into the tensions, contestations and contingencies that underlie the development of African policy frameworks and the challenges of their implementation.”
“This elegantly written book is a welcome addition to the recent literature on critical histories of international law, which will undoubtedly be helpful for a proper evaluation and understanding of present-day ideas, practices, and institutions of international law from an African perspective, or from the perspective of an Africanized international law. It should be of interest and benefit to students, teachers, and practitioners of international law in Africa and beyond.”
“The author takes us on a journey of legal introspection that will leave no one indifferent: Insiders, outsiders, judges, lawyers and NGO members will be fascinated by the force of evaluation and the proposals in Micha Wiebusch’s work, which takes a totally innovative approach to analysing the making and enforcement of international law in Africa.”
“A Theory on Africanizing International Law is an ambitious, erudite, empirically informed, and theoretically rich explication of how the African Union is charting an African-centered vision of an international law that might meet the ambitions, physiological, social and cultural needs, and the self-actualization desires of African peoples. Micha Wiebusch offers a tour de force assimilation of the hundreds of legal treaties, texts, institutions, actors and rulings, and a constructive critical theory that is – as the name implies – critical yet also reflective of the constructive problem-solving nature of the legal architects who are transforming international law to meet African needs.”
“The regionalisation of international law in Latin-America has long been accepted. Although Africa has infused international law with an identity of its own, little has been written about African international law as a regional branch of international law. The present work fills a gap in legal literature in providing an important contribution to the understanding of the regionalisation of international law in Africa.”
“I sincerely believe that current and future generations will immensely benefit from this excellent work which brings out in a forceful manner the role and contribution of Africa in the development of international law. Africa is no longer the subject at the receiving end of international law. Rather, through events and deliberate commitments it is a full participant in shaping debates on international law and how it influences how we are governed and relate to each other as nations and peoples. In these endeavors, Africa must strive to tell its own stories confidently and convincingly. The contribution of this book to achieving that objective is immense and it will always have an important place in those conversations.”
“Thisis both an outstanding and very important book, which explains what is ‘African’ about African international law. It shows how African international law has been shaped by African agency and identity-formation, by African politico-legal discourses and institutions, and through interactions with the outside world.”
“African International Relations is a critical issue that has been neglected for far too long. This thought provoking and highly readable book is part of an important new wave of scholarship putting this right – and is likely to become a touchstone for those working in this area in the future.”
“This book provides a novel and provocative framework to assess the evolution, performance and impact of international law and governance. By investigating and theorizing the development patterns of African international legal norms, actors and processes, the book makes the key contextual factors influencing the future direction of international law and governance prodigiously more intelligible.”
“This very timely, important volume seeks to make sense of African International Law, upper case: to explain what it actually means, why it matters, how it works, where its future lies – and to theorize the production of both the knowledge and practices, the knowledge-practices, that make it African. In so doing, Wiebusch succeeds handsomely in persuading his readers that A Theory on Africanizing International Law is an urgent necessity in the global history of the present.”
“Au-delà du débat ancien sur l’existence ou non d’un droit international africain, l’ouvrage de Micha Wiebusch est un effort appréciable de théorisation de l’africanisation du droit international à travers la recherche des solutions juridiques africaines aux problèmes africains. C’est une perspective stimulante et féconde à découvrir.”
“When I published Is International Law International? in 2017, I lamented how little I knew about African International Law. I wish Wiebusch’s book had been available to me during my research at that time. As much as I enjoyed learning about African particularities, what also struck me here was that I was learning new concepts that I could apply well beyond Africa, such as “guerrilla lawfare”. That is part of the promise of comparative international law – the chance to learn about other places and, in the process, to learn more about places you know well.”
“Through his experience with the African Union Commission and the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and his solid theoretical background in international law, Micha Wiebusch is exceptionally well placed to evaluate the impact of African international institutions, courts, and lawyers on the development of international law in Africa. The present book is of utmost interest to any lawyer and to anyone else interested in African contributions to international law and its politics.”
“This book by Micha Wiebusch is more than a book on international law and the African Union. It is a book that rightly decentres international lawyers’ traditional geographies and conceptual universes. Most importantly, it is a book that allows international lawyers to imagine a different world-making by international law.”
“Beyond theorizing, this timely book is a tremendous contribution to decolonizing knowledge and examining and proffering radical ideas on Africanizing international law. Written from an African lens and inspired by the prolific author’s intimate interactions with African law-making institutions, the book’s unique contribution beyond the academy is to policy makers championing global normative and institutional reforms. It urges us to look inward, centering African perspectives as we do so. A highly commendable body of work relevant for our times and beyond.”
“Whoever aims to think through or contribute towards imagining and conjuring up an ‘international rule of law’ regime in the name of ‘Africa’ would do very well to pay heed to the warnings, and draw inspiration from insights that Wiebusch draws together in this informative, though-provoking and ambitious work, painted with meticulous and fine brush strokes on a broad and complex canvas.”
“This book offers the reader plenty of insights into the techniques utilized to build and implement regional or continental governance frameworks and advances nothing less than a new paradigm to explain the intricacies of regional legal integration. In times of increased geopolitical tensions, it offers indispensable reading for anyone who is involved in some way with regional integration and multilateral regional cooperation, but also for anyone interested in changing the world order.”
“Dr Micha Wiebusch’s A Theory on Africanizing International Law is an excellent and welcome addition to the literature aimed at decolonising international law from an African perspective. It makes a unique and original contribution to the debates with a constructive critical analysis that provides a framework highlighting the need for a continental cooperation that can lead to a clear African approach to international law.”
“Assurément un ouvrage fondamental! Parfois indûment ‘panégyrisé’, parfois fragilement contesté – jusqu’à être nié dans son existence et/ou son importance, le droit international africain mérite la minutieuse inspection et les prometteuses perspectives que lui dressent Micha Wiebusch dans un ouvrage qui reflète une belle et fine mécanique de réflexion et de mise en ordre, là où il ne s’en produit pas spontanément. Bâti sur le goût prononcé de l’auteur pour le questionnement permanent et une rigueur méthodologique tournée vers l’esprit de système,
A Theory on Africanizing International Law est certainement, tant dans la démonstration et que dans ses conclusions, une contribution à la réflexion sur un droit international en mutation et un défi d’introspection au droit africain en quêtede son identité.”
“A Theory of Africanizing International Law is a book that poses many questions about the nature and content of African International Law. The reader is lured into following the different strands of theory that Micha weaves together by reference to history, philosophy, physics, biology and other natural and social sciences, in order to offer a deeper understanding of African International Law, its foundations, its history, its uses, its meaning and – most importantly – its potential. I highly commend the book to African International Law researchers, scholars, diplomats, legal advisors and students alike.”
“How does Africa bring international law home? Wiebusch’s unique study offers international law theorists and practitioners a fascinating account of how the idea of Africa both shapes and is embedded in the way African states make, implement, and enforce international law. It explains how African international law may be understood, how it works, why it matters, and how to conceive its future. A comprehensive tale of how Africa’s continental identity shapes the process of international law-making and implementation to provide a quintessentially African solution to an African problem.”
“The idea that Africa is devoid of history, legal personality or agency has some antiquity in international law and relations. The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council turned this from colonial lore to a norm of law in its decision in Re Southern Rhodesia in 1918. Much of that attitude persists to this day. In A Theory on Africanizing International Law, Micha Wiebusch takes aim at this tendency, and accomplishes an ambitious takedown with audacity, clarity and economy. Africanizing international Law is a three-in-one effort about Africa’s relationship with itself; Africa’s relationship with the world; and – at least interstitially – how the rest of the world treats Africa. Its genius lies in the fact that it manages to accomplish these without making Africa look like an afterthought. Its narrative and argumentation bear close attention.”
“This scholarly treatise is a thorough appraisal of where Africa is coming from, where she is, and where she plans to be with regard to the development of international law. It is a must-read for all judges, lawyers, students, academics, policy makers and civil society actors.”
“In Wiebusch’s provocative analysis, Africa emerges as a product of how international law knows and governs a continent. A fine study in the co-production of knowledge and norms.”
“In this tome, Micha Wiebusch takes us on a journey through Africa’s legal frames, merging indigenous jurisprudence with universal norms to reveal a continental distinctiveness. Wiebusch showcases Africa’s agility in intertwining its legal roots with global mandates, shedding light on the continent’s agency in forging a jurisprudential realm that mirrors its legal and ethical convictions.”
“By examining the various international legal-political initiatives taken by the African continent, the author proves beyond any doubt that Africa has crossed the bridge from being an object to a proper subject of international law today as of right.”
“This book is at once bold and sincere: bold, because it delves into a fraught and controversial legal question in the context of broader debates about decolonisation and Africanisation of law which sometimes tend to treat views of non-Africans with suspicion; sincere, because it engages with all relevant literature on the subject head-on without seeking refuge in obscure or opaque reasoning. Given the exponential growth of norms, standards, practices, and procedures at the regional and subregional African levels of relevance to international law, the author manages to cover a broad sweep with amazing brevity and originality. No scholar nor policy maker interested in innovative thinking about Africa and its relation to international law can ignore this book.”
“Micha Wiebusch’s A Theory on Africanizing International Law is bold and ambitious, yet also careful and self-conscious. Breaking new ground in many respects, I believe it will be the basic text on what it means to Africanize international law, how one assesses the project, and the challenges and potential opportunities that the project presents – including structural legacies of colonialism perpetuating major inequalities in knowledge production and legitimation, but also the potential hope of “guerilla lawfare” enhancing social equality.”
“In his wide-ranging new book, Micha Wiebusch theorizes and studies empirically the development of a continental “African international law,” characterized by distinctive normative aims (“African solutions for African problems”), institutional actors, and legal processes. Tracing the emergence of African international law from the post-colonial Organization for African Unity to the present-day African Union, Wiebusch illuminates the ever-increasing volume of continent-wide African norms, the judicialization of their interpretation, and their variable implementation across AU member states. Crucial reading for any student of international law and courts.”
“This unique book offers vital insights to scholars and practitioners who want to understand an emerging body of legal institutions and practices on the African continent that are connected to the broader body of international law but that also have distinct African characteristics based on some shared understanding of continental identity. The book offers a wealth of empirical material on the emergence of an Africanized legal system as well as doctrinal guidance for African international lawyers.”
“This book is a much-needed contribution to international law theory, which asks foundational questions about the evolution of African regionalism and the role of international law in that project. It provides an invaluable comprehensive account of the institutions and legal technologies of the African Union – an account which builds on but also offers bold departures from existing literature on regional integration, constitutionalisation and the ‘rule of law’, and decolonisation. In an approach which centres the Organization of African Unity and the African Union, Dr Micha Wiebusch develops an original theorisation of African regionalism to assert a distinctly African international law.”
“Theoretically informed and empirically grounded, this book brings alive the Africanization of International law as a dynamic, contested and vibrant terrain. Showing how the politics of knowledge and the politics of location are deeply intertwined, this book is a must read for anyone interested in the life of law and governance on the continent.”
“As Africa advances in its integration process, including through its Continental Free Trade Area, effective techniques for the peaceful settlement of international disputes are more needed than ever. Dr. Wiebusch’s book does a terrific job in laying out and making more accessible the intricate legal and institutional frameworks that shape and are, in turn, shaped by the practice of international political conflict resolution at the highest levels of African governance. This is one of those ‘must-read’ books.”
“Regional integration is fundamentally driven by interests, ideology and institutions. This timely and outstanding monograph does a superb job in bringing together these elements in a compelling and unique narrative explaining the drivers behind Africa’s legal-political integration project and how it may lead to progressive and equitable development across the continent. The book stands among landmark contributions to the field and deserves the widest readership among legal experts, diplomats and policy-makers.”
“This book not only develops robusttheoretical foundations to better understand the making and implementation of African international law, it also offers hands-on practical guidance on how to navigate the African international legal regime and make it measurably more impactful. Accordingly, this book will be of immense use among African international law practitioners in their role in public interest advocacy and litigation to build a more united, just and prosperous Africa.”
“This book offers an incisive reflection on the rich practice of African international law. It carefully maps out the rapidly expanding sites of encounters with African international law and politics, including parliaments, courts, ministries, electoral bodies, academia, civil society organisations, the media, statistics’ offices, law commissions, bar associations and so on. In doing so, the book usefully charts the multiplicity of connections between and tensions within international and national processes and actors in pursuing a people-driven governance of the African continent led by the African Union.”
“L’œuvre est à la fois révolutionnaire et originale. Les critères internationaux de production du droit ont été, ici, scrupuleusement respectés et auréolés de surcroit de spécificités du contexte africain d’où l’aspect révolutionnaire ; quant à son originalité, le droit international africain a été protégé par les nouveautés adoptées, lui évitant d’être un rejeton opportuniste par le copiage mutatis mutandis du droit international universel. Plusieurs dispositions du Protocole de Maputo en sont des preuves, ainsi que les diverses garanties des droits des Peuples, unique dans le contexte juridique contemporain actuel. L’œuvre apparait monumentale vu les recherches approfondies et méticuleusement menées. Elle nous dévoile toutes les faces cachées du droit international africain, ainsi que ses aspects jamais traités ce qui donne un avantage et un privilège de verser dans ce “Nouveau Monde” du droit international africain jusqu’ici inexploré. Désormais l’œuvre s’affiche comme une référence pour mieux maitriser le droit international africain en évitant de la qualifier, par euphémisme, bréviaire pour connaitre ledit droit.”
“Some international law scholarship in the “West” has recently come to the realization that international law is not universal. They have, in consequence, started doing “comparative international law.” A Theory on Africanizing International Law is a welcomed departure from this recent trend. This book does not compare traditions for its own sake, but rather probes through a question that is existential to every international lawyer in the peripheries: what is African about African international law? This book is pathbreaking as it looks for answers inwards, in the continent, its authors, legal materials, its history.”
“A fresh, at times provocative, always interesting and informative contribution to the intellectual map of international law.”
“Essentially, this book is a call for Africa to invest more resources in its own knowledge production regarding the development of its own international law, while being mindful of the often-hidden power dynamics involved in such enterprises. This argument is well-made, drawing on and enriching a multitude of international legal theories. It deserves to attract considerable attention among all those behind the international legal construction of Africa.”