Localization from a Postcolonial Perspective: African States’ Experiences with the International Criminal Justice Norm

Abstract This paper develops a postcolonial perspective on norm localization to argue that the contradictory conduct of African states in the international normative order emanates from a postcolonial structural condition with external and internal dimensions. The external dimension, linked to deep-rooted distrust within the society of states from historical imperialism to contemporary neocolonial relations, stems from the fact that African nations have been integrated into unequal power relations, which in turn shape their ideas and concerns about the legitimacy of the normative order itself. The internal dimension, which threatens domestic political stability, arises from the colonial construction of African states as inherently prone to violence orchestrated by nonstate actors from within and powerful actors from outside. In this structure, strategic ambivalent conduct involves the adoption of two sets of contradictory measures that together challenge the liberal notion of a predetermined linear and progressive normative development. While measures at the international level invoke ideas that normative progress is supposed to supersede, measures at the regional level appeal to African traditions and political/economic realities to reconstitute or create a new norm. Localization of the international criminal justice norm, which seeks to hold individuals criminally accountable for grave violation of international humanitarian and human rights laws, is presented as a case study.