This talk raises questions about the mechanics of reordering institutions in African polities. The reordering of institutions contends with failed development policies and problematic institutions as well as the unquestioned, inflated, conflated, and precariously preponderant role of lawyers in policy choices, design, and implementation. In this context, the talk attempts to draw lessons from the reform of Ghana’s Constitution, Forestry Laws, and Health Insurance System to build a three-part theory of change as a tentative answer to how new polities may be fashioned in an Africa that is attempting to do just that from South Africa to Egypt and Tunisia and from Liberia and Sierra Leone, through Zimbabwe and Kenya to Southern Sudan and Libya. The talk also elaborates on ways of thinking and acting, using the three-part theory of conversations, stories, and experiments to alleviate intractable and enduring challenges, such as “when renewal repeats” -- a peculiar post 9/11 version of the globalization of law -- and using “the bureaucracy” to enact institutional reform.
Location: Thompson Room, Barker Center, 12 Quincy Street, Harvard University.
Free and Open to the Public. Please Feel Free to Bring a Lunch.