Oxford University Press is publishing
a new book on the the role of international law in Britain's imperialist
expansion into West Africa during the early- and mid-nineteenth century.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Africa often remains neglected in
studies that discuss the historical relationship between international law and
imperialism during the nineteenth century. When it does feature, focus tends to
be on the Scramble for Africa, and the treaties concluded between European
powers and African polities in which sovereignty and territory were ceded.
Drawing on a wide range of archival material, Inge Van Hulle brings a fresh new
perspective to this traditional narrative. She reviews the use and creation of
legal instruments that expanded or delineated the boundaries between British
jurisdiction and African communities in West Africa, and uncovers the
practicality and flexibility with which international legal discourse was
employed in imperial contexts. This legal experimentation went beyond treaties
of cession, and also encompassed commercial treaties, the abolition of the
slave trade, extraterritoriality, and the use of force.
The book argues that, by the
1880s, the legal techniques that were fashioned in the language of
international law in West Africa had largely developed their own substantive
characteristics. Legal ordering was not done in reference to adjudication
before Western courts or the writings of Western lawyers, but in reference to
what was deemed politically expedient and practically feasible by imperial
agents for the preservation of social peace, commercial interaction, and humanitarian
agendas.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Inge Van Hulle is Assistant
Professor of Legal History at Tilburg University, The Netherlands. Prior to
joining Tilburg University she worked as a PhD research assistant at the
department of Roman law and legal history at KU Leuven where she obtained here
PhD in 2016. At Tilburg University she teaches courses such as 'History and
Theory of International Law', 'History of International Law', 'History of
Government and Public Institutions' and 'Early Modern History'.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction: Britain and
International Law in West Africa
1. The Changing Legal Patterns of
Anglo-African Relations (1807-1840)
2. British Legal Strategies and
the Abolition of the Slave Trade
3. Extraterritorial Jurisdiction
and the Dawn of the Protectorate
4. Benevolent Aggression and
Exemplary Violence in West Africa
5. International Law and the
Settlement of Disputes concerning West Africa on the Eve of the Scramble
Conclusion
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