Response to Geoffrey Swenson’s Review of Domination Through Law: The Internationalization of Legal Norms in Postcolonial Africa

Abstract

democracy and the only country in Southeast Asia rated “free” by FreedomHouse. While domestic actors deserve the most credit, international assistance played a modest but important role. These inquiries, however, should not detract from the book’s many virtues. Chief among these is the rich, vivid, and persuasive account of legal, political, and economic development in Sierra Leone and Liberia that spans centuries. More broadly, the book offers a valuable corrective to the popular discourse that it is enough to simply focus on the state justice system and that anything claiming to be the rule of law should be taken at face value.