For Martin Chanock Essays on Law and Society Edited by Stephen Ellmann, Heinz Klug and Penelope Andrews

Martin Chanock's insights into the construction of African ‘customary’ law and the architecture of South African racial oppression provide the starting points for this volume, which includes:

• Professor Martin Chanock’s preview of his book on the difficult history of African constitutionalism, and the potential promise of a return to a living customary law
• Professor Chris Arup on the ways that cause lawyering in Australia (as elsewhere) is shaped by its setting, and the ways that Chanock, as an educator, worked to affect that setting 
• Professor Frank Munger on cause lawyering and grassroots advocacy as a path to liberty even in systems lacking legalist traditions
• Professor Stephen Ellmann on the value of South African legalism, in light of Chanock's insight that a racist system of law is affected by race in every aspect of its operation
• Professor Hugh Corder on the role of South Africa's highest courts in the making of the state, both in the early 20th century and today
• Professor Jonathan Todres on Chanock's analysis of customary law as a key to understanding the ways the global North views African states – and itself
• Professor Julia Sloth-Nielsen and Dr Lea Mwambene on the complicated integration of customary law into the ordinary law of post-apartheid South Africa
• Professor Fareda Banda on the ‘centrality’ of Chanock's work in understanding African law, and the impact of his thinking on scholarship and advocacy.

For Martin Chanock - Essays on Law and Society is a special issue (Volume 28 No 2) of the journal Law in Context. You can purchase a single copy of this issue through this page, or subscribe to the journal from the journal page.