Fates of Political Liberalism in the British Post-Colony: The Politics of the Legal Complex

Description

What explains divergences in political liberalism among new nations that shared the same colonial heritage? This book assembles exciting original essays on former colonies of the British Empire in South Asia, Africa and Southeast Asia that gained independence after World War II. The interdisciplinary country specialists reveal how inherent contradictions within British colonial rule were resolved after independence in contrasting liberal-legal, despotic and volatile political orders. Through studies of the longue duree and particular events, this book presents a theory of political liberalism in the post-colony and develops rich hypotheses on the conditions under which the legal complex, civil society and the state shape alternative postcolonial trajectories around political freedom. This provocative volume presents new perspectives for scholars and students of postcolonialism, political development and the politics of the legal complex, as well as for policy makers and publics who struggle to construct and defend basic legal freedoms.

Terence C. Halliday is a Research Professor at the American Bar Foundation and the co-director of the Center on Law and Globalization at the American Bar Foundation and University of Illinois College of Law. He is the author and editor of several books on the politics of legal professions and his research has been published in the American Sociological Review, the American Journal of Sociology, the Law and Society Review, Law and Social Inquiry and the Annual Review of Sociology, among others. Halliday is the winner of distinguished book prizes from the American Sociological Association Sections on Globalization, Sociology of Law and Economic Sociology. Lucien Karpik is a Professor at the Ecole des Mines de Paris and Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (CESPRA). He is the author or co-author of several books including French Lawyers (1999) and Valuing the Unique (2010). His writing has been published in numerous academic journals and conference proceedings as well as in Le Monde, Le Debat and Sciences Humaines. Malcolm M. Feeley is the Claire Clements Dean's Professor of Jurisprudence and Social Policy Program at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author or editor of sixteen books and more than eighty articles in social science journals and law reviews. His books include The Process Is the Punishment (1979), Court Reform on Trial (1983) and, with Edward Rubin, Judicial Policy Making and the Modern State (1998) and Federalism: Political Identity and Tragic Compromise (2008). His books have received the Silver Gavel Award, the Certificate of Merit from the American Bar Association and a book prize from the American Sociological Association.