Abstract
The editors, Pablo Ciocchini and George Radics, are both academics in Singapore—a country that (arguably) belongs to the Global South. Many chapter authors in this edited collection are emerging scholars. Like the editors, most chapter authors have received their academic qualifications both in the Global North and South thus representing a group of scholars who have likely experienced epistemological oppression and the othering, silencing and marginalization of the voices of the Global South first-hand. The editors of this volume have, however, done a wonderful job in acknowledging individual writing styles and voices.
While this volume adds value to any general bookshelf on the ‘Global South’, it also fills a crucial gap in research because it is the first of its kind to solely focus on socio-legal studies of criminalized behaviours from an exclusively ‘southern’ perspective. Yet, the authors have managed to write for both readers in the Global South and North by grounding their respective discussions in the universal commonality of ‘the law’. The edited collection thus generates a sense of inclusivity and ongoing dialogue between the colonial past and the neo-colonial present in which both sides of the globe are invited to partake. Overall, the book highlights how ‘the law’ in the Global South continues to be inspired by foreign values because it was—and often still is—imported from or influenced by the Global North. Therefore, the law often fails to serve local cultures and aspirations and thus creates legal grey zones that provide relentless challenges for both law enforcement and the judiciary. To emphasize this tension between culture, politics, institutional practices, and ‘the law’, the edited collection refers to ‘criminal legalities’ instead of ‘the criminal law’. Preceded by an introduction, the book contains 11 chapters in three sections—Cultural dynamics, Political tensions and Institutional practices—followed by a conclusion.
Chapter 1 discusses the criminalization of adultery in colonial India applying Edward Said’s concept of orientalism to the legal realm. The author argues that the British colonial courts interpreted Islamic family law through a Victorian lens of sexual morality declaring as a ‘wife’ only a woman whose body was under constant control of her husband. While India abolished adultery as a criminal offence in 2018, the legacy of this ‘legal orientalism’ (p. 30) remains alive in Pakistan and Bangladesh, where adultery laws continue to criminalize women (less so men) and expose women to male violence.
Chapter 2 covers LGBT rights in Singapore. The author explains that the Global North experienced a homogenous post-Second World War history: a baby boom followed by a cultural revolution in the 1960/1970s that rejected conservative moral values and thus advanced LGBT rights. Concurrently, the Global South was regaining its independence from colonial rule compelling it to prioritize socio-economic security. To accelerate economic growth, Singapore enhanced ‘British laws that were meant to control the colony’ (p. 36) and re-framed them as ‘Asian values’ (hard work, discipline, group interests over individual rights). The criminalization of homosexuality is part of that colonial-legal legacy. While Singapore’s government has refrained from enforcing the law since the 1990s, discrimination remains rife.
Chapter 3 constitutes a refreshing piece of decolonial writing. It tells the story of the decriminalization of homosexuality in India. However, it is not a mere account of legal history. It intertwines with the author’s personal story and theatre plays written about section 377 of the criminal code. Thus, the chapter highlights the importance of storytelling in the legal sphere: ‘Courtrooms are set up to tell stories’ (p. 62) and the profound effect of humanizing affected communities in advocacy work.
Chapter 4 discusses the (de)criminalization of jogo do bicho (animal lottery) in Brazil. After a short overview of the history of this gambling game, the authors examine its criminalization under the legal interest theory, minimum intervention theory, and social adequacy theory exposing a legal ‘inconsistency that causes legal uncertainty und undermines criminal law efficacy and enforceability’ (p. 81).
Part II—Political tensions—opens with Chapter 5, which documents the ‘serious and systematic human rights violations committed by the Dominican state against people of Haitian descent’ (p. 89) that mirror the Global North’s criminalization of migrants from the Global South. Using the concept of crimmigration, the author demonstrates how racist colonial hierarchies and the post-colonial hegemony of the Global North continue to produce oppressive relations within the Global South and permit ‘state-sponsored crimes against humanity’ (p. 90).
Chapter 6 describes the ‘cosmologies’ or positions that various Argentinian legal activists have taken on as their main cause: the reform of the federal criminal justice procedure legislation. The author focuses on the sociology of law analysing the concept of ‘cultural change’ and the role it plays when legal experts seek to achieve a substantial law reform.
Chapter 7 assesses the despotic decisions made in contemporary Burmese courtrooms in trials of political dissidents. The author argues that Burmese courtrooms have become ambiguous spaces as they—unlike during the previous military dictatorship—permit ‘highly mediatized political performances’ (p. 125) that ‘call attention to the failure of the regime to produce [. . .] quietude’ among the Burmese population (p. 138).
Part III—Institutional practices—opens with Chapter 8, which covers ‘War on Drugs’ in the Philippines and the role judges, prosecutors and public defence attorneys played in controlling illegal police behaviour, in reinstating plea bargaining for drug cases, and in reinserting a rehabilitation focus into what must otherwise be considered an extensive campaign of state violence against the poor and disenfranchised.
Chapter 9 focuses on the criminal procedure code in Indonesia, whose reform, the author argues, was obstructed due to ‘police dominance and prosecutorial and judicial weakness [which] are deeply entrenched features of Indonesia’s criminal justice system brought about by historical circumstances of colonialism and authoritarianism’ (pp. 167/168).
Chapter 10 examines how the Peruvian Criminal Procedure Code introduced in 2007 encourages the premature dismissal of corruption cases. The author argues that one in three cases was erroneously dismissed early and that the main reason is ‘deficiencies in the public prosecutor’s work’ (p. 183).
The final chapter uses the case of Inês Etienne Romeu, who was tortured and raped in a detention and disappearance centre during the Brazilian dictatorship of 1964–1985, to explain the long delays in Brazilian transitional justice and the lack of criminal accountability.
In sum, Criminal Legalities in the Global South represents a solid collection of critical counter-colonial academic writing. It makes a valuable contribution to legal and criminological scholarship with its thorough analysis of legal frameworks in light of colonial history. It demonstrates the epistemological side of colonial violence and its ongoing impact. The book is suitable for both undergraduate and postgraduate students of History, Law, Criminology, Conflict Resolution Studies, Peace Studies, Indigenous Studies, Women’s Studies and Sociology and presents a stimulating read for scholars from the aforementioned disciplines with an interest in the Global South, First Nations or colonialism.