Law, Lawyers and Sustainable Development: Reflections of a Fellow Traveler

Authors

Muna B. Ndulo, Cornell Law SchoolFollow

Abstract

At the national level, the rule of law is necessary to create an environment for providing sustainable livelihoods and eradicating poverty. Poverty often stems from disempowerment, exclusion and discrimination. The rule of law fosters development through strengthening the voices of individuals and communities, by providing access to justice, ensuring due process and establishing remedies for the violation of rights. Security of livelihoods, shelter, tenure and contracts can enable and empower the poor to defend themselves against violations of their rights. Legal empowerment goes beyond the provision of legal remedies and supports better economic opportunities. In order for the rule of law to further sustainable development outcomes, it must ensure protection for all human rights, including, economic, social and cultural rights and the right to development. The role of law and lawyers in Africa is seen here as to help the development process by understanding the social and economic matrix in which legal norms are essentially a super structure, and making the lawyers expert knowledge to bear on this process in order to make the norms more functional to the development process.

Recommended Citation

Ndulo, Muna B. (2021) "Law, Lawyers and Sustainable Development: Reflections of a Fellow Traveler," Southern African Journal of Policy and Development: Vol. 5: No. 2, Article 6.
Available at: https://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/sajpd/vol5/iss2/6