This article examines the basis for humanitarian intervention (HI) in the United Nations Charter, the African Union (AU) Charter and in a number of African sub-regional institutions. It traces the historical development of HI and argues that, while the right to HI emerged more than 100 years ago, that right also emerges from the Genocide Convention. The article argues that this treaty connects HI to the developing norm of the responsibility to protect (R2P) and examines the extent to which R2P is garnering wider support around the world. It focuses on the UN, and the various AU and sub-regional institutions and instruments that sanction HI. It assesses whether intervention can be authorized even in the absence of a UN Security Council mandate and examines the principles, application and interrelationship of R2P and HI in the African context. It traces the use of these norms in Africa, including in the various sub-regional structures, and evaluates the AU's political will and capability to deal with conflict and human rights abuse.

This article contrasts the lawmaking process in the Eritrean transitional legal framework with experience in South Africa, which offers insightful lessons for future improvement in Eritrea. Indeed, the Eritrean lawmaking process retains many imperfections in terms of the design of the interim constitution and ensuing practice. On paper, the competence of the executive and the legislature is not clearly demarcated. Rather, it is nebulously shared between both branches, resulting inevitably in competing interests. The lawmaking process lacks democratic characteristics and defies the requirements of accountability and good governance. The practice that has followed is worse. In a country with a protracted history of executive dominance, the lawmaking competence conferred upon the executive has inexorably contributed to entrenched dictatorship. The article offers suggestions for improvement.

This article re-assesses the means available for the effective enforcement of human rights in Tanzania based on the valid assumption that the proclamation of human rights in legal instruments, be they at the domestic or international level, is meaningless without the entrenchment of effective enforcement procedures. Particular attention is directed towards the re-examination of the capacity and ability of the courts to meet the challenges posed by human rights and political discourses in their ongoing transformation. The issue is whether they can be said to be adequately providing effective avenues for the promotion, protection and enforcement of human rights.

The world currently has a profusion of intergovernmental organizations charged with various public functions previously reserved for states. The operations of these organizations affect the ordinary lives of individual citizens in the member states. Yet these organizations are not legitimate, based on the standard expected of a democratic state government. This article joins the chorus demanding the legitimization of international organizations that perform public functions, taking into account their peculiar circumstances and nature, and with specific reference to the East African Community. It sets out criteria for assessing legitimacy and examines the organs, functions and administration of the East African Community against those criteria. It argues that, as presently established and structured, the East African Community seriously lacks legitimacy. There is therefore an urgent need for reform, to avoid this body becoming yet another statistic of moribund regional integration schemes in Africa.

Nigerian conveyancers routinely resort to powers of attorney and agreements to sell (estate contracts) as tools to avoid the prohibitory clauses of the Land Use Act. Judges have shown their sympathy through a strict (but beneficial) construction. Nevertheless, the current system exacerbates the risk of acquiring precarious titles in land transactions. Accordingly, this article suggests that the avoidance objective will be best achieved through the application of the principles of trust and the use of trust instruments such as express written declarations of trust.

This article analyses the history of the various meanings and interpretations of the sentence of penal servitude for life in Mauritius, the human rights implications, and the likely challenges that courts will confront in interpreting new legislation. The Privy Council held in 2008 that a mandatory sentence of penal servitude for life was arbitrary and disproportionate because it violated the right to a fair trial under the constitution. However, the article argues that the Privy Council should also have found that penal servitude for life, where the offender is to be detained for the rest of his life, violates the prisoner's right not to be subjected to inhuman punishment under the constitution, as well as violating Mauritius's international human rights obligations. It recommends that Mauritian courts consult South African jurisprudence when interpreting what amount to substantial and compelling circumstances under the 2007 Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Act.

The objective of this article is to analyse critically a government proposal to privatize the management of federally-run secondary schools in Nigeria. Although they have performed relatively well over the years, recent problems have led to a decline in academic standards in these schools. The article examines the potential merits and demerits of the proposed public-private partnership with a view to assessing whether the partnership can add value to the current public model. Although the analysis falls short of endorsing the proposed reform, the article recommends its phased implementation subject to the application of specific legal and practical considerations. It argues that there are enforceable limits to changes in secondary education policy and that the government has an obligation progressively to implement free and compulsory secondary education. It also highlights a number of practical matters meant to ensure that the best interests of any affected children will be taken into account.

This article sets out a comparative study of the defences of compulsion and necessity in selected African nations and under the Statute of the International Criminal Court. The aim is to produce the best formulations of these defences for possible adoption by the African nations concerned.

After explaining the nature and extent of the problem of child sex tourism, this article identifies the relevant instruments of international law, before discussing the legal tools available in South Africa to deal with this issue.

This article discusses the effect of the registration requirements under the Zambian Companies Act on the rules for determining priority among company charges in Zambia. In light of the Supreme Court decision in Zambia National Commercial Bank Ltd v Mwila, the article also analyses the scope for applying common law rules on the ranking of charges, vis-à-vis section 101 of the Companies Act.

Competent courts in Malawi must, as courts have done in South Africa, undertake a radical path in order to enhance the common law position of distinct categories of persons. This article discusses judicial appreciation of the common law-changing function of a bill of rights and its associated values, and judicial understanding as to when such a function may be brought into play. The article examines approaches taken by courts in South Africa in determining the circumstances in which the South African Bill of Rights applies to private relationships, when private parties owe each other duties arising out of the Bill of Rights and the scope of a court's authority to amend the common law in that regard. The article projects the debate, analysis and critique of these approaches onto the Malawian legal landscape through a discussion of the tenant worker contracted on the Malawi private estate.

Nigeria's Land Use Act, promulgated in 1978, is perhaps the most controversial legislation in the country. The Act, originally promulgated as a decree and annexed to the country's constitution, was ostensibly made to nationalize landholding in the country. However, the peculiar impact of the Act on the inhabitants of the Niger Delta region that hosts upstream activities of the oil industry has led to assertions that the Act was made specifically to deprive those inhabitants of the right to participate actively in the oil industry. This article examines the impact of the Act on the right of inhabitants to access justice. It argues that the Act obstructs their rights to environmental justice and is a fundamental cause of the violent conflicts that pervade the region.

In its first judgment the South African Development Community (SADC) Tribunal had to determine whether Zimbabwe's controversial programme of land redistribution for resettlement purposes was compatible with the SADC Treaty. The tribunal provided one of the few avenues of redress for farmers deprived of their property without compensation. It held that the land reform programme breached the treaty on the grounds that the property owners had been denied access to the domestic courts, that the applicants had been victims of racial discrimination, and that the state had failed to pay compensation for the lands compulsorily acquired. While the tribunal appears to have reached the right conclusions, its reasoning could have been more persuasive. Of wider significance is the fact that the tribunal has established itself as a forum that can provide relief for human rights violations. Its finding that human rights are justiciable under the treaty is notable.