Law, Development, and Legislative Drafting in English-Speaking Africa
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4251833 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Robert B Seidman (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1981 |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 133-161 |
| Publication date | 1981-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of Modern African Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-278X • E-ISSN: 1469-7777 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0022278x0005415x |
| OpenAlex | W2006057016 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 10 |
Legislation in the former British colonial territories exhibited a pair of paradoxes. First, it spoke in legalese, a patois that only judges and lawyers can read easily. Many laws concerning development, however, addressed ordinary citizens. Second, drafters invented and used a specialised style to reduce official and judicial discretion by making legislation more precise, but this frequently endowed officials with discretion as broad as the unbroken sky. In Africa, the uses of legalese seemed to war with the purposes for which it was developed
Discretion · Legislation · Legislature · Political science · Statement (logic) · Style (visual arts) · Comparative and International Law Studies · History · Judicial and Constitutional Studies · Law · Legal Language and Interpretation
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,05 |
| Citation span | 1982 - 2008 (27) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |