Text no. 1: The variety of topics covered and the quality of the contributors make these two volumes a necessary part of any law library in the world. The essays are designed to overlap in the well-tested and established fields and branches of law dealing with contemporary issues which lawyers, diplomats, political scientists, politicians and research scholars are familiar with. The essays fully demonstrate the depth of knowledge of the eminent professors and specialists who have written them. The two volumes of essays are divided into seven parts. Volume One, entitled Contemporary International Law and Human Rights, focuses essentially on subjects relating to International Law and is divided into three sections. Part one of the first volume encompasses Topics in International Law such as Some New Thoughts on the Codification of International Law by his Excellency Judge Roberto Ago; Evidence in the Procedure of the International Court of Justice: The Role of the Court by His Excellency Judge Manfred Lachs; The Validity of International Law: an Empirical Experiment by Professor Georg Schwarzenberger, with a particularly engaging and incisive Introduction to the two volumes of Essays by Professor Ian Brownlie, Q.C. Human rights subjects still hold pride of place in the thinking of many legal experts and scholars and that is clearly reflected here. The title of the second volume is African Law and Comparative Public Law. Part Five of the essays contains topics of interest in the African Legal system which has its roots in the British Common Law System. Constitutional Law is broadly covered in part six which forms a section of its own in Volume Two. Text no. 2: This Festschrift pays tribute to Judge Taslim Olawale Elias, the leading African exponent of International Law to date. The two volumes of essays are divided into seven parts. The first volume focuses essentially on subjects relating to International Law and is divided into three sections. Part one of the first volume encompasses Topics in International Law such as Some New Thoughts on the Codification of International Law by His Excellency Judge Roberto Ago; Evidence in the Procedure of the International Court of Justice: The Role of the Court by His Excellency Jugde Manfred Lachs; The Validity of International Law: an Empirical Experiment by Professor Georg Schwarzenberger, with a particularly engaging and incisive Introduction to the two volumes of Essays by Professor Ian Brownlie, Q.C. Human Rights subjects still hold the pride of place in the thinking of many legal experts and scholars which is clearly reflected here. The title of the second volume is African Law and Comparative Public Law. Part five of the essays contains topics of interest in African Legal system which took its roots from the British Common Law System. Constitutional Law is bloadly covered in part six which forms a section of its own in volume two. Quite apart from the variety of topics covered in this festschrift, the quality of the contributors to it, makes the whole exercise a necessary part of an important collection of any law library in the world. The framework of the essays suggest that they are designed to overlap in the well-tested and established field of law and those branches of law dealing with contemporary issues which lawyers, diplomats, political scientists, politicians and research scholars are familiar with. The richness of the festschrift is m.

It is unfortunate that the idea that Africa contributes to international law, and has always done so, remains (in 2022) largely a side note, an auxiliary approach, rather than something widely accepted and deeply entrenched. It is cause for pause that this is also true in Africa itself. Exploring African approaches to international law: Essays in honour of Kéba Mbaye is a volume of essays that aims to contribute to a larger effort of imagining what possible approaches to international law Africa has adopted in the decades since the 1960s. It also recognises the legacy of the great Senegalese jurist Kéba Mbaye. Edited by Frans Viljoen, Humphrey Sipalla and Foluso Adegalu, the volume is divided into five broad thematic parts, and comprises eleven chapters. It covers the following themes: ‘Kéba Mbaye in African approaches to international law’, ‘international legal theory’, ‘international human rights law’, ‘international environmental and criminal law’ and ‘teaching of international law’. This publication finds its origins in the 2017 Roundtable on African approaches to international law, held at the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria. The explorations at the Roundtable on the concept of an ‘African approach’ to international law were taken further at the Kéba Mbaye Conference on African approaches to international law, held at the Senate Hall, University of Pretoria, in December 2018. This conference brought together around 80 students, academics, and members of civil society to address the many questions left unanswered by the death of Judge Mbaye, arguably Africa’s greatest international law jurist of his generation. It provided a forum to continue discussions on ‘African approaches to international (human rights) law’, building on but rethinking and ‘vernacularising’ the Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) approach. The contributions to this publication flow from papers presented at the conference. However, the reflections in the book extend beyond Kéba Mbaye as central figure. The result is a broad treatment of various aspects of African approaches to international law by thirteen authors (and co-authors), covering a wide range of generational, geographic and thematic backgrounds and perspectives.

This book questions the critical attitude that is informing the critical histories that have been flourishing since the ‘historical turn’ in international law. It makes the argument that the ‘historical turn’ falls short of being radically critical as the abounding critical histories which have come to populate the international literature over the last decades continue to be orchestrated along the very lines set by the linear historical narratives which they seek to question and disrupt, thereby repressing the imagination of international lawyers. It makes the point that the critical histories that have accompanied the ‘historical turn’ have contributed to the repression of disciplinary imagination just like other linear disciplinary histories. This book argues that the critical histories must move beyond a mere historiographical attitude and promotes radical historical critique in order to unbridle disciplinary imagination.

Textbook and commentary on customary and non-customary legislation relating to land tenure and land ownership in Nigeria.