Unpacking Legal Pluralism in Commonwealth Africa – Towards Strengthening Methods for Rule of Law Programming for Development

Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development has brought the rule of law to the forefront in the quest for sustainable development, with emphasis on Africa and the rest of the developing world. To ensure that law contributes to sustainable development, it is critical to address the mismanagement of legal pluralism in Commonwealth member countries in Africa, demonstrated by the conflict of legal systems and the stagnant evolution of institutions of governance in the aftermath of independence after colonial rule, and the current neoliberal economics-oriented/institutional approach based on the Washington Consensus. The current approaches to rule of law reform and development have resulted in the status quo in Africa, where the role of law and legal systems for sustainable development is not explicitly evident. The law is not applied consciously for development and the role of legal practitioners in development is undermined. An understanding of the impact of colonialism and post-colonial legal systems and the impact of the Washington Consensus; the influence of intergovernmental organizations and international non-governmental actors in providing rule of law reform assistance; and the methodology through which the technical assistance for law and development has been implemented to date is critical to developing new methods/approaches to the rule of law and development.