This is a vital study of the motivations of the British Imperial Appeal Courts and the tensions between the demands of imperial law and justice and those of African law and custom.
Drawing extensively on archival material, this book shows how the language of rights, like that of "civilization" and "modernity," became an important part of the discourses deployed to rationalize and legitimize empire.
In this sense, this book is not a collection of hope or despair. Nor is it a book that seeks to situate itself between these two poles.