The Legacies of Law

Jens Meierhenrich is Assistant Professor of Government and of Social Studies at Harvard University, where he is also a Faculty Associate at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. He recently served as the Carlo Schmid Fellow in Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and has previously worked with Luis Moreno Ocampo, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. Professor Meierhenrich is also the author of a genocide trilogy, comprising The Rationality of Genocide, The Structure of Genocide, and The Culture of Genocide (all forthcoming).

'South Africa's peaceful transition from apartheid to democracy has surprised many observers. In an innovative approach to this topic, Professor Jens Meierhenrich argues that existing legal norms and institutions have important structuring effects on transitions to democracy. He identifies the dichotomy between apartheid law's rational formalism and its irrational substance and asserts that this body of law 'was, in an important respect, necessary for making democracy work'. … The Legacies of Law offers an important account of the end of apartheid and expands the lessons of that experience to broader issues of democratization.' Harvard Law Review

• 1. Introduction; Part I. A Theory of Law: 2. A typology of law; 3. Path dependence and the law; Part II. A History of Law: 4. Apartheid and the law I; 5. Apartheid and the law II; 6. Apartheid's endgame and the law I; 7. Apartheid's endgame and the law II; Part III. A Comparative Analysis: 8. A plausability probe; 9. Conclusion.