ESPOL -Lab Seminar : Book presentation « Lawyering Imperial Encounters. Negotiating Africa’s Relationship with the World Economy » (Cambridge University Press, 2024)

Sara DEZALAY – ESPOL, Université catholique de Lille

Lecture Hall MF 1092, ‘Michel Falise’ Building, 13 rue de Toul

Lawyering Imperial Encounters revisits the long history of extraction between the African continent and global capitalism since the nineteenth-century Scramble. Focused on sites of imperial encounters – in London, Paris, Abidjan, Bujumbura, Kinshasa, Johannesburg or the Hague, it shows how legal intermediaries negotiate and justify Africa’s subaltern position in the global economy. Lawyering Imperial Encounters demonstrates the symbiosis between the legacy of imperialism and the detrimental societal and environmental impact of the ongoing rush for Africa’s ‘green’ minerals. It offers a powerful postcolonial critique of law’s double-bind – as both enabler and bulwark against predation.

Sara Dezalay is Professor of international relations and international law at ESPOL, Université catholique de Lille.