Louisiana Law Review Volume 67 | Number 4 Symposium: Law Making in a Global World Summer 2007 What Kind of Law Making in a Global World? The Case of Africa Jacques Vanderlinden Repository Citation Jacques Vanderlinden, What Kind of Law Making in a Global World? The Case of Africa, 67 La. L. Rev. (2007) Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.lsu.edu/lalrev/vol67/iss4/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Reviews and Journals at LSU Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Louisiana Law Review by an authorized editor of LSU Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. What Kind of Law Making in a Global World? The Case of Africa Jacques Vanderlinden* I. INTRODUCTION When I was considering the main topic assigned by the organizers of the symposium, i.e., law making in a global world, a preliminary question jumped to mind: How relevant is the reference to a global world-is it just a gratuitous reference to an intellectual fashion of the day? Literally speaking the adjective "global" refers to something that "embraces the totality of a group of items."' But, on the one hand, since, in this instance, it qualifies the world (isn't global coming from globe and, accordingly, this juxtaposition tautological?), it may leave us a bit perplexed about the exact nature and extent of the items embraced. Are we really concerned about the law making of a global law applicable to the whole planet? On the other hand, when I look superficially at what appears to me and around me today when one refers to the global world, I tend, although for different reasons, to see myself as lonely as the savage in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.