Comparative Constitutionalism and Good Governance in the Commonwealth: An Eastern and Southern African Perspective

Extract

Comparative Constitutionalism and Good Governance in the Commonwealth: An Eastern and Southern African Perspective, John Hatchard, Muna Ndulo and Peter Slinn, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. xxv, 361

This is a magisterial tome in both substance and style. It is comprehensive, almost encyclopaedic; it also presents the perspective of “constitutional lawyers” (4), at least until the “retreat” towards the political science in the concluding, thirteenth chapter (310). Reflective of their trade, the trio of authors include lists of cases, constitutions, statutes and other instruments, with page references, as well as a comprehensive index of almost 20 pages. The volume presents the significant conceptual advances in comparative constitutionalism in anglophone Africa since independence, including democratic pressures towards “good governance” advanced through the Commonwealth nexus (1); but it also comes to lament the continuing existential constraints on “constitutional governance” (308). It offers welcome comparative analysis of a dozen countries and myriad regimes over four decades.