The Past as Present: Law, Anthropology and History

• This site communicates the findings and activities in our project. In our project we turn to history in order to better understand challenges to law and order in our present time; specifically, examining the present-day fragmented and ‘failed state’ of Congo (DRC), often described as lacking in terms of the Rule of Law and adequate legal institutions is re-examined in light of the rule of law activities pursued in the lower Congo by Swedish missionaries from the Mission Covenant Church of Sweden (Svenska Missionskyrkan), 1881-1961. Following the well-established thesis that ‘disorder’ in the contemporary ‘postcolony’ flows from how the introduction of law and order was pursued during the pre-colonial and colonial era, our project revisits the Swedish contribution to the establishment of the Rule of Law in contemporary DRC, in order to better understand legal fragmentation and pluralism was introduced in the pre-colonial and colonial era. We draw on unique archival material, as well as contemporary empirical data, with the aim to develop a substantiated holistic approach to legal fragmentation and state state-building initiatives in the contemporary DRC.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Juridik (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Law (hsv//eng)

HUMANIORA  -- Historia och arkeologi -- Historia (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- History and Archaeology -- History (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Sociologi -- Socialantropologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Sociology -- Social Anthropology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

The Mission Covenant Church of Sweden (Svenska Missionskyrkan)

Kongo

DRC

legal fragmentation

pre-colonial law

colonial law

post-colonial law and history

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

ovr (ämneskategori)