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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Contextualising Legal Theory: Economic Analysis of Law and Jurisprudence from the African Perspective
Author:Boniface, AhunwanISNI
Year:2000
Periodical:African Journal of International and Comparative Law
Volume:12
Issue:2
Period:June
Pages:240-261
Language:English
Geographic term:Africa
Subjects:philosophy of law
Law, Human Rights and Violence
Economics and Trade
External link:https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/afjincol12&id=254&collection=journals&index=journals/afjincol
Abstract:For African scholars in search of a legal theory that provides a framework for an instrumental jurisprudence of development, the economic analysis of law would appear to be a suitable theory since, as some scholars profess, though controversially, it is a testable, functionalistic and instrumental theory of rationality. This article examines the economic theory of law from the African perspective and argues that its claim to scientificism may be misleading. The economic analysis of law is based on a value system which is inseparable from, and in fact creates the methodological approach. Thus, the economic analysis of law uses certain assumptions of human rationality, such as the universal desire for wealth maximization, to predict or explain legal rules. Examination of particular features of African society such as marriage, the social justice system, racial and ethnic clashes, customary law and the position of Africa in the global world shows that, generally, the economic analysis of law is incompatible with the social forces that operate in Africa, and indeed the social, political and economic character of African States. However, the article also argues that African legal theorizing can benefit from the economic analysis of law if it is employed as an 'end/means' approach where values are defined first and economic analysis is employed as a problem-solving device. Notes, ref.
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