Anyone seeking to understand the complex entanglements between capitalism, legal change, and African politics will find a treasure trove in Sara Dezalay’s Lawyering Imperial Encounters. The book generally argues that there is an intricate relationship between three specific variables affecting the role of lawyers (and lawyering) as shapers of actors, institutions, and processes of Africa’s position in the global economy. The first is offshore and onshore capitalist expansion, the second is the relevant contexts of imperialism, colonialism, and neoliberalism, and the third is legal change. The first variable of capitalist expansion is seen through the influence of the free movement of capital – perhaps as value in motion across varied national jurisdictions – through global value chains (GVCs) of commodities such as critical minerals, coffee, and cocoa within Africa. When this capitalist expansion takes place within African countries, it is described as onshore capitalist expansion. When it occurs outside, especially in tax havens such as the Bahamas, Jersey, the British Virgin Islands, the US state of Delaware, and recently Singapore (p. 114), it is described as offshore capitalist expansion (ch. 3 generally).

The second variable of imperialism, colonialism, and neoliberalism (as represented by the liberalization of trade, privatization, and deregulation) provides an explanation of the politics of history and the involvement of Global North countries in Africa’s past as ‘actors, institutions and processes (pg. 3).’ Here, the role of transnational corporations (TNCs) as drivers of GVCs accounts for over 80% of global trade.

Finally, the third variable is legal change. It is perhaps the core of the book’s claim that the laws (and lawyers) are vital in Africa’s unequal engagement in the global economy. Specifically, the book presents the role of law and lawyers as professional intermediaries (‘middlers’) for negotiating the spaces between capitalist expansion and the imperial encounters within a sample of African states, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Burundi, Ghana, and Côte d’Ivoire.

Sara Dezalay thus uses the sophisticated socio-economic aspects of capital extractivism (using capital expansion to gain profits represented by illicit financial flows (IIFs)) in Africa, represented by commodities such as critical minerals, coffee, cocoa, and beer (Heineken’s economic and political dominance in Burundi), as a launch pad. She argues that this extractivism tracks the ‘legal and judicial chains of the social and professional networks, norms, and institutions that shape, justify, and transform the uneven and unequal relationship between the African South and the world economy’ (p. 4). She breaks down how the law glues the global economy together through GVCs.

As a separate theme, the author uses a number of landmark judicial and arbitration proceedings to explain her core arguments. For instance, in the introduction and chapter 1, she uses the judicial saga of FG Hemisphere Associates LLC v. DRC. This was a sovereign debt case where FG Hemisphere AssociatesFootnote ¹ sought to enforce favourable arbitral awards against DRC assets in Hong Kong. The case revolved around an infrastructure bond related to building hydroelectric and high-tension transmission lines. The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) ruled in 2012 (in a case on appeal from Hong Kong’s court of final appeal) that FG Hemisphere Associates could not enforce this debt, as DRC enjoyed absolute sovereign immunity in Hong Kong, as part of the People’s Republic of China’s position of absolute sovereign immunity. The case thus traversed multiple geographical jurisdictions and judiciaries for over 20 years and is emblematic of how she traces the symbolic value between law, GVCs, and finance.Footnote ² The case also shows how there are entanglements between the imperial past and financial markets in tax havens.

The book can also be read as a socio-legal analysis of the role of international and national law dispute settlement institutions in Africa’s relationship with the world economy. In chapter 2, we see this displayed through three pre-independence judicial sagas: the 1920s Gold Coast (now Ghana) in the Privy Council; the 1895 Stokes–Lothaire incident in the High Council of the Congo Free State; and pre-independence military trials in French and British colonies. In chapter 5, the role of Burundi and Burundian lawyers in the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) serves as an excellent example of how the author uses the historical narratives of violence and rule of law contestation in Burundi to highlight the role of African international courts and tribunals. These are typically marginalized in mainstream international law dispute settlement discourse.

Importantly, the book is also a forceful display of how lawyers deploy their symbolic capital. The concept of symbolic capital refers to the prestige, authority, expertise, familial connections, educational, and professional standing and networks that prominent lawyers deploy in their role as ‘middlers’ in lawyering imperial encounters in Africa. Expectedly, most of the towering African legal giants find mention in the book: Taslim Olawale Elias from Nigeria, Algerian Mohammed Bedjaoui, and Egyptian Georges Abi-Saab. The danger of this arguable over-inclusion is the risk of vital subjective or unconscious exclusions. For instance, Georges Abi-Saab’s colossal legal profile is included, for example, his prominent role as arbitrator, famous dissent in Abaclat and Others v. Argentine Republic, which is described as ‘a guardian of the legitimacy of public international justice’ (p. 129). His profile, however, is not fully painted, as his roles in the World Trade Organization (WTO) Appellate Body and panels are omitted.

Additionally, it is not clear that the book profiles any leading female lawyers and their roles in any of these pre- or post-colonial imperial encounters. Along the same lines, in the Ghanaian legal field, the lack of mention of Nana S.K.B. Asante could easily be criticized as one of the foremost international lawyers of Ghanian origin who should not have been excluded. This criticism is, however, based on the inevitable choices the author had to make about which geographical spaces to analyse in detail. Africa is a big continent, and most of the author’s strategic choices on geographic scope and substantive focus are well justified. There is, however, an apparent bias in the book towards more Francophone Africa, reflected in the author’s heavy analysis of this region, and two whole chapters dedicated to Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire and Bujumbura Burundi, with none dedicated to an Anglophone or Lusophone capital. Despite this criticism, it would be plausible for the author to argue that these Francophone countries/capitals are marginalized in mainstream Anglophone literature, and this book is in itself a mainstreaming of these marginalized spaces.

Lawyering Imperial Encounters is a landmark contribution to critical international legal scholarship. Dezalay unearths the legal professionals who animate imperial continuities and disruptions in Africa’s global positioning. Despite certain limitations in representation, the book is essential reading for those interested in post-colonial legal studies, global capitalism, and the sociology of law.