Justice in Africa: New Challenges and New Actors

Justice in Africa is in a paradoxical situation. It is the subject of recurrent criticism in the form of accusations of being corrupt and inaccessible for citizens seeking justice. At the same time, it is expected to fulfill an ever greater number of ever more ambitious missions, especially in the areas of democracy, human rights, and development. It is the focal point of a growing number of actors that exercise it and encroach upon the public justice in force, as imported from European countries. The special report of this issue of "Afrique contemporaine" edited by Jean du Bois de Gaudusson investigates the emergence of new paradigms that may readjust justice’s public-service role, and even the place afforded to law in the regulation of social and political relations and in economic development. Through its analysis of the evolution of justice in Africa, this special report attempts to offer responses to fundamental questions related to justice’s missions, practices, and mechanisms. It also addresses the tensions created through a plurality of laws and those responsible for them.