Title: An Intellectual Giant – Essays in Honour of Muna Ndulo
Editors: Marja Hinfelaar, O’Brien Kaaba and Pamela Towela Sambo
Pages: 318
Price: K540
Publishers: Gadsden Publishers
Selling points: Gadsden offices, Northmead, Lusaka
THE newly published book Intellectual Giant – Essays in Honour of Muna Ndulo is a fitting title for this important tribute to Zambia’s legal export to the US whose enormous achievements on surface appear unfeasible.
However, after reading the intimidating tome of a curriculum vitae, one can defensibly call Professor Ndulo a legal colossus because of the normally unattainable levels he has reached in the legal profession.
It is understandable for the academics both national and regional whose essays are included in this wellarticulated book to prostrate before his legal shrine.
Edited by Marja Hinfelaar, O’Brien Kaaba and Pamela Towela Sambo, throughout the book the chapters end practically, with prompts for recommendations that should encourage authorities to apply the unit content of Intellectual Giant – Essays in Honour of
Muna Ndulo in their policies to improve the legal fraternity in Zambia.
The book is composed of nine essays written by prominent and high-profile legal practitioners and academics in law. While the essays are essentially concerned with legal issues, they necessarily go beyond this.
In the foreword Chief Justice of Zambia Judge Mumba Malila, who was once taught by Professor Muna Ndulo, calls the book a child of its time, hailing it as a fitting tribute in celebration of the man’s intellectual contribution to the battlefield of ideas.
The introduction by the editors chronicle Prof Muna Baron Ndulo’s personal life and professional career, spanning more than half a century from the time he enrolled at the University of Zambia in 1966, ending up at the University of Cornell in the United States of America where he has been serving as professor of law, Cornell Law School and Elizabeth and Arthur Reich Director Leo and Arvilla Berger International Legal studies programme.
In the first chapter, Legal education in Zambia as a pathway to the globalised world of opportunities, Dr Pamela Towela Sambo evaluates legal education in Zambia and the relatively myriad of novel issues like human rights, and environmental and technological advancement which have to be infused in legal education.
She argues at length that to catch up with the mercurial legal concerns, legal education should reconcile old and new challenges by adopting a multifaceted approach in the field.
She concludes by imploring authorities to depart from the current provincial approach of legal education in which trainee lawyers cling to formalism and conformism to an informed independent and adaptable thinking suitable to a globalised world view.
The following three chapters all address germane aspects of the constitution design in Zambia with Dr O’Brien Kaaba’s brilliant essay ‘Secession movements, the right to self-determination and the challenges to constitutional design in a multi-ethnic African state: The case of Barotseland in Zambia’ objectively brainstorming the subject with fresh urgings never sufficiently addressed before.
Dr Kaaba analyses the ‘Barotse problem’ from the time the newly created Zambia abrogated the Barotseland Agreement, tackling the subject from two legal perspectives; firstly, from the public international law and secondly from the constitutional design angle.
The chapter develops the argument of the special status of Barotseland beginning from colonial rule when authorities set it apart from the rest of the protectorate.
He examines issues of secession and self-determination and offers the option of a more appropriate constitutional design centred on ethnic diversity in order to permanently rest the ‘Barotse problem’.
Chaloka Beyani, in the book’s third chapter entitled The Pitfalls of Bill 10 in modern constitution making experience: a post-mortem, critiques the former ruling Patriotic Front (PF) ill-fated bill that the former government wanted to sneak in.
He argues that the glaring pitfall of the bill was its deviation from being people-centric and the adoption of repressive constitution bereft of citizens’ consultation and participation.
In chapter four, entitled A Tale Told Twice: The Struggle for a Legitimate and Democratic Constitution, Beyani and Muna Ndulo expose the evident shortcoming of the constitutionmaking process dubbed as the technical committee which was, in reality, a commission of inquiry which was thus handicapped to make a tangible constitution since it could only serve as a mouthpiece of the executive.
In the fifth chapter, by Tinenenji Banda and Chuma Himonga entitled Traditional dispute resolution mechanism and access to justice for women in Zambia: Lessons from lower state ‘customary’ law courts, the authors conclude that in theory, the relatively informal nature of both the local and magistrates’ courts proceedings are more likely to increase justice outcomes for the poor and other disadvantaged groups, including women.
In chapter six, Public policy in uncertain times: Responding to COVID-19 in Uganda and Zambia, Steve KayizziMugerwa compares the ways in which the Ugandan and Zambian governments addressed the impact of the virus on healthcare and social services.
One of the conclusions of his essay is that both countries demonstrated that the political economy of public policy is generally that incumbent leaders do not pursue policies that threaten their own prospects of re-election, even in the face of a global pandemic.
The seventh chapter by Ashimizo Afadameh-Adeyemi, ‘Transnational cooperation and regional integration in Africa: A case for compliance monitoring through the African Peer Review Mechanism’, and Patrick Ng’ambi’s eighth chapter, ‘Compensation standards under the SADC Protocol on Finance Investment’, discuss aspects of regional integration.
The ninth and final chapter by Dunia P Zongwe, ‘The R41 Domestic: A Theory of Large-Scale Infrastructure Finance’, demonstrates that resource for infrastructure contracts can bring unprecedented levels of investments.
The chapter concludes by emphasising that although R41 contracts are not a panacea for African countries’ economic challenges, they provide a formidable tool with which to boost foreign direct investment (FDI).
An Intellectual Giant – Essays in Honour of Muna Ndulo does justice in honouring him as an internationally recognised scholar in the fields of constitution making, governance and institution building, international criminal law, African legal systems, human rights, and international law and foreign direct investments.
Professor Ndulo has published 19 books, 29 book chapters and over 100 articles in academic journals, and is honorary professor of law, Faculty of Law, University of Cape Town; extraordinary professor of law, University of the Free State, South Africa; extraordinary professor of law, University of the Western Cape, South Africa; and was formerly professor of law and dean of the School of Law at the University of Zambia.
He has also been an arbitrator under the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).
He has served as a legal officer in the International Trade Law Branch of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), Political and Legal Adviser with the United Nations Mission Observer Mission in South Africa (UNOMSA) and to the special representative of the United Nations Secretary General to South Africa, legal adviser to the United Nations Assistance Mission to East Timor (UNAMET), Legal Expert to the United Nations Mission to Kosovo (UNAMIK), and Legal Expert to the United Nations Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA).
He has acted as consultant to the African Development Bank (AfDB), the World Bank, Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), United Nations Development Program (UNDP), National Democratic Institute (NDI), United Sates Institute for Peace (USIP), and International Development Law Organization (IDLO).
He has also acted as consultant to the Kenya 2010 constitutional process and Zimbabwe constitutional process.
In addition, Prof Ndulo is founder of the Southern African Institute for Public Policy and Research (SAIPAR) and member of its board of directors.
He is also a member of the Board of the African Association of International Law, the Advisory Committee of Human Rights Watch Africa, and he formerly served as chairperson for Gender Links, a South African NGO.
At Cornell, he also serves as director of the Institute for African Development.
The bottom line is that Intellectual Giant – Essays in Honour of Muna Ndulo is a clever, tight, super actionable read that you will plough through quickly and then continue to use as a reference again and again.
It should be on every lawyer’s bookshelf and a must-read for anyone connected to the legal profession, including general readers of the profession.
Author: Austin Kaluba