Short Abstract

This panel investigates practices of justice in the lower tiers of the justice systems in challenging social and political environments. It foregrounds the work of community justice practitioners whose interventions shape people's everyday experiences of law and dispute resolution in Africa.

Long Abstract

This panel investigates practices of justice in the lower tiers of the justice systems and in challenging social and political environments, including contexts of discrimination, displacement or political violence. It seeks to foreground the work of community paralegals, elders, chiefs, religious leaders, and other justice practitioners whose interventions shape people's everyday experiences of law and dispute resolution in Africa, yet whose roles often remain under-documented and overlooked.

This panel will explore how these justice workers intervene in disputes, the range of issues they handle, the achievements and challenges they encounter, and the ways in which their work is shaped by specific social, political and legal contexts. We welcome papers that investigate the significance of the alternative dispute resolution systems and actors in legally plural contexts; justice practitioners’ perceptions of and engagement with state institutions and formal legal systems; and the ways in which justice work affects practitioners’ own lives and livelihoods, including experiences of vulnerability, trauma and insecurity. We are particularly interested in contributions that reflect on how everyday justice practices and practitioners can be studied from diverse disciplinary perspectives in ethical and collaborative ways, generating new insights into justice ‘from below’.

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