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November 21, 2025

When courts become weapons: how Chad jailed its opposition leader

Michael Asiedu Chad's 20-year conviction of opposition leader Succès Masra reveals how African courts have become weaponised against dissent. Across the continent, writes Michael Asiedu, from Benin to Uganda, authoritarian regimes are increasingly using fabricated charges to silence opponents. This, he says, masks repression behind democratic facades, erodes judicial independence, and weakens the prospects for genuine democratic transition Read more

September 12, 2025

Free movement in the Global South: beyond the border line

Zoé Perko We tend to regard free movement as a legal and institutional achievement, but this view overlooks the lived realities in the Global South. Drawing on research in West Africa and South America, Zoé Perko shows how informal practices and historical networks redefine how ‘free movement’ really works Read more

September 6, 2021

State disengagement as a response to low-level conflict

Joan Ricart-Huguet ways: by repressing their subjects, or conceding to their demands. Yet, write Joan Ricart-Huguet and Richard McAlexander, there is a third option. Weak states may use a strategy of state disengagement Read more

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