Swiss and Japanese villagers have learned the relative benefi ts and costs of privateproperty and communal-property institutions related to various types of land and uses of land. The villagers in both settings have chosen to retain the institution of communal property as the foundation for land use and similar important aspects of village economies.1..

The establishment of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights was a pivotal moment for the African human rights system. To date, 30 of the African Union’s 55 member states have accepted the Court’s jurisdiction by ratifying the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Establishment of an African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights. This article uses statistical analysis of state action on the Protocol to shed light upon (...) the factors that have led some states to accept the Court’s jurisdiction and other states to thus far decline to do so. The results provide strong support for accounts of the origins of international human rights regimes that emphasize transitional states’ desire to “lock in” new commitments to democracy and human rights. Potential compliance costs, regimes’ ideological orientations, domestic legal traditions, and regional dynamics have also exerted significant effects upon the likelihood of ratification. (shrink)

The question of how multinational enterprises respond to local corporate social responsibility expectations remains salient, also in the context of many African governments’ attempts to define and regulate business responsibilities. What determines whether MNEs respond to such local, state-driven expectations as congruent with their global commitment to CSR? Adopting an institutional logics perspective, we argue that a higher global CSR commitment will lead to higher local responsiveness when regulatory distance is low, but it will lead to lower local responsiveness (...) when regulatory distance is high. We find support for our hypothesis using data on 93 MNEs’ responses to the South African state’s Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment policy. We thus contribute to the global–local CSR literature and show how MNEs’ local CSR responsiveness will be shaped by not only the local context but also their home country and firm-internal environments. (shrink)

Human Biological Materials are an invaluable resource in biomedical research. Objective To determine if researchers and a Research Ethics Committee at a South African institution addressed ethical issues pertaining to HBMs in collaborative research with developed countries. Study Design Ethically approved retrospective cross-sectional descriptive audit. Results Of the 1305 protocols audited, 151 fulfilled the study's inclusion criteria. Compared to other developed countries, a majority of sponsors were from the USA . The principle investigators in all 151 protocols informed the (...) REC of their intent to store HBMs. Only 132 protocols informed research participants . In 148 protocols informed consent was obtained from research participants, 116 protocols solicited broad consent compared to specific consent [p < 0.0001]. In 105 cases a code was used to maintain confidentiality. HBMs were anonymised in 14 protocols [p < 0.0001]. More protocols informed the REC than the research participants that HBMs would be exported . Export permits and Material Transfer Agreements were not available in 109 and 143 protocols, respectively. Conclusions Researchers and the REC did not adequately address the inter-related ethical and regulatory issues pertaining to HBMs. There was a lack of congruence between the ethical guidelines of developed countries and their actions which are central to the access to HBMs in collaborative research. HBMs may be leaving South Africa without EPs and MTAs during the process of international collaborative research. (shrink)

This book explores the influence of ubuntu on South Africa’s post-apartheid transitional justice mechanism, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and—in contrast to ethnophilosophy—takes differences, historical developments, and social contexts seriously.

Context The conduct of medical research led by Northern countries in developing countries raises ethical questions. The assessment of research protocols has to be twofold, with a first reading in the country of origin and a second one in the country where the research takes place. This reading should benefit from an independent local ethical review of protocols. Consequently, ethics committees for medical research are evolving in Africa. Objective To investigate the process of establishing ethics committees and their independence. Method (...) Descriptive study of 25 African countries and two North American countries. Data were recorded by questionnaire and interviews. Two visits of ethics committee meetings were conducted on the ground: over a period of 3 months in Kigali (Rwanda) and 2 months in Washington DC (USA). Results 22 countries participated in this study, 20 from Africa and two from North America. The response rate was 80%. 75% of local African committees developed into national ethics committees. During the last 5 years, these national committees have grown on a structural level. The circumstances of creation and the general context of underdevelopment remain the major challenges in Africa. Their independence could not be ensured without continuous training and efficient funding mechanisms. Institutional ethics committees are well established in USA and in Canada, whereas ethics committees in North America are weakened by the institutional affiliation of their members. Conclusion The process of establishing ethics committees could affect their functioning and compromise their independence in some African countries and in North America. (shrink)

Persons in Community sounds a clear call for African voices to be heard in the global village. It explores the interface between traditional African ethics and contemporary issues, both locally and globally. The contributors to this book offer incisive perspectives on cultural values - such as ubuntu - in a wide range of areas: the workplace and Western capitalism, medical practices, government and political change, gender relationships and HIV/AIDS. What emerges is that there are distinctive and common strands (...) in ethical views from sub-Saharan Africa, which need to be examined, sometimes applauded, and sometimes challenged. (shrink)

A popular tradition holds that the theoretical entities that feature in explanations relative to the African world view are typical of spiritual forces. Following this point of view, a concession among some scholars suggests that the traditional African world view is inconsistent with mainstream scientific theorising and therefore the acceptance of one implies the rejection of the other. My contention is essentially to challenge this tradition, a position I consider unfounded and an instigation of unsolicited tension between the (...) African world view and mainstream science. To make this case, I isolate for review one entrenched postulate of the African world view, witchcraft force. Through the method of concept analysis, I demonstrate how, far from opposing one another, advances in mainstream science rather lead to a better appreciation of the African world view. Because there is no contradiction but diversity, I argue that accepting mainstream science implies no commitment to rejecting the African world view. (shrink)

Underscoring recurrent calls for the decolonization of university curricula in South Africa are underexplored presumptions that by only disrupting theoretical content, universities might release themselves from a colonialist grasp, that continues to dominate and distort higher education discourse. While it might be the case that certain theories hold enormous authoritative, ‘truthful’ sway, as propagated through Western interpretations and norms, there are inherent problems in exclusively approaching the decolonization project as a content-based hurdle, removed from the subjectivities of students’ social, lived, (...) and learning realities. The argument advanced in this article is that until the epistemic harm of colonialism and apartheid are afforded careful recognition and attention—as in focusing on the lived experiences, realities, and stories of individuals—the hard work of delegitimizing coloniality, and its implicit structures of hegemonies and binaries cannot unfold. In addressing these harms, I commence by describing some of the contexts of epistemic harm, promulgated through colonialism and apartheid. This is followed by a consideration of decolonization, both as theory and practice-within-context. Here, I also foreground the #Rhodesmustfall campaign, as a particular moment of painful clarity about why decolonization, as well as transformation, has faltered in higher education in South Africa. In the second half, I focus on the necessity of prioritizing storytelling as a deep manifestation of decolonization. Stories, I maintain, provide access into unknown lives, and can subvert the invisible, normative framings, which dictate how we live in this world. As a manifestation of decolonization, students’ stories hold profound implications for the recognition and affirmation of pluralist identities, histories, knowledge, values, and world-views. (shrink)

. “Normal” Prisons in an “abnormal” society? A comparative perspective on South African prison law and practice. Criminal Justice Ethics: Vol. 6, No. 2, pp. 37-51. doi: 10.1080/0731129X.1987.9991816.

Aims to construct an economic philosophy from indigenous African thought.

Samuel Imbo has written a short, concise introduction to some of the major issues addressed over the last century by scholars and activists concerned with African philosophy. The book is divided into five chapters, the first of which surveys answers to the question "What is African philosophy?". Because of a legacy of intellectual denigration that portrays Africans as incapable of abstract thought, this question is often the first raised by those outside the field. This legacy is reinforced by (...) the assumption that philosophy requires a tradition of written communication. Imbo addresses both of these sources of skepticism, delineating three senses of African philosophy: ethnological, universalist, and hermeneutical. (shrink)