Violence of Law - The Formation and Deformation of Gacaca Courts in Rwanda

"Lawfare" describes the systematic use and abuse of legal procedure for political ends which, in post-genocide Rwanda, contributed to the making of dictatorship. Jens Meierhenrich explains how and why Paul Kagame's Tutsi-led government in the period 1994-2019 learned to substitute law for war in its consolidation of authoritarian rule"--

List of contents

Part I. Introduction: 1. A justice façade; Part II. A Theoretical Framework: 2. The violence of law; Part III. The Emergence of Lawfare: 3. Bending the law; 4. Chambres specialisées: from legalism to lawfare; Part IV. The Evolution of Lawfare: 5. Varieties of Gacaca; or: the invention of tradition; 6. Violent legalization; 7. Lineages of governmentality; 8. The supply and demand of law; 9. The marketing of genocide; Part V. The Effects of Lawfare: 10. In a field of pain and death: lawfare in the countryside; 11. A cartography of silence; Part VI. Conclusion: 12. The political economy of lawfare.

About the author

Jens Meierhenrich is Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science and a Visiting Professor of Law at Columbia Law School. He has previously taught at Harvard University. His many books include The Legacies of Law (Cambridge, 2008), which won the American Political Science Association's 2009 Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award, The Remnants of the Rechtsstaat (2018), and, as co-editor, The Cambridge Companion to the Rule of Law (Cambridge, 2022).

Summary

'Lawfare' describes the systematic use and abuse of legal procedure for political ends which, in post-genocide Rwanda, contributed to the making of dictatorship. Jens Meierhenrich explains how and why Paul Kagame's Tutsi-led government in the period 1994-2019 learned to substitute law for war in its consolidation of authoritarian rule.

Foreword

Examines 'lawfare' (a little understood form of warfare) in post-genocide Rwanda, where it contributed to the making of dictatorship.

Product details

• Authors: Jens Meierhenrich, Jens (London School of Economics and Meierhenrich, Meierhenrich Jens
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.12.2023
• EAN: 9781108425391
• ISBN: 978-1-108-42539-1
• No. of pages: 770
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political education; POLITICAL SCIENCE / Human Rights, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Constitutions, Human rights & civil liberties law, LAW / International, LAW / Constitutional, LAW / Public, POLITICAL SCIENCE / World / African, LAW / Comparative, Rwanda, Public International Law, comparative law, Constitution: government & the state, Constitution: government and the state, Constitutional & administrative law, Constitutional law and human rights