Law's Fragile State
Colonial, Authoritarian, and Humanitarian Legacies in Sudan

This book uncovers how colonial administrators, postcolonial governments and international aid agencies have promoted stability and their own visions of the rule of law in Sudan.

Mark Fathi Massoud (Author)

9781107440050, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 8 May 2014

304 pages, 10 b/w illus. 2 maps 5 tables
23 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.45 kg

'A rich interdisciplinary analysis grounded in extensive fieldwork … a compelling story.' Rachel Ellett, Law and Social Inquiry

How do a legal order and the rule of law develop in a war-torn state? Using his field research in Sudan, the author uncovers how colonial administrators, postcolonial governments and international aid agencies have used legal tools and resources to promote stability and their own visions of the rule of law amid political violence and war in Sudan. Tracing the dramatic development of three forms of legal politics - colonial, authoritarian and humanitarian - this book contributes to a growing body of scholarship on law in authoritarian regimes and on human rights and legal empowerment programs in the Global South. Refuting the conventional wisdom of a legal vacuum in failed states, this book reveals how law matters deeply even in the most extreme cases of states still fighting for political stability.

1. Lawfare and warfare in Sudan
2. The colonial path to the rule of law, 1898–1956
3. Law in a state of crisis, 1956–89
4. Authoritarian legal politics and Islamic law, 1989–2011
5. Law and civil society, 1956–2011
6. Humanitarian legal politics in an authoritarian state, 2005–11
7. Reflections on legal politics.

Subject Areas: Law & society [LAQ], Law [L]