Book review - Carlos Manuel Serra Estado, Pluralismo Jurídico e Recursos Naturais — Avanços e Recuos na Construçao do Direito Moçambicano

• Published date: 16 August 2019
• Date: 16 August 2019

BOOK REVIEW

Carlos Manuel Serra

Estado, Pluralismo Jurídico e Recursos Naturais —

Avanços e Recuos na Construçao do Direito Moçambicano

(Escolar Editora, Lisboa, 2014, pp 792, soft cover)

Reviewed by TINA LORIZZO

PhD Researcher, Centrefor Comparative Law in Africa, University of Cape Town

Since colonial times, anthropologists, sociologists and lawyers have written

extensively on the state, legal pluralism and natural resources in Mozam-

bique. Scholars such as Isaacman, Sachs, de Sousa Santos, Trinidade, Kyed

and Meneses are a few of the most inf‌luential names that have shaped the

theoretical framework of these subjects. However, today, more than before,

the debate around the interaction between these three topics is becoming

extremely important. While Americans and Europeans have begun to

explore the extensive Mozambican natural resources, a deeper understanding

of the relationships between state administration, justice and natural

resources is needed. This book not only analyses the interaction that these

topics have with one another in that country, but also compares their

relationship through a historical digression that begins with colonial times

and leads the reader through the revolutionary state to the current post-

revolutionary period.

While the colonial era began with the Berlin Conference held in 1885,

and f‌inished in 1975 — the year of Mozambican independence from the

Portuguese — the revolutionary period off‌icially ended in 1992 with the

Rome Peace Agreement, and the post-revolution lasted from the 1990s until

today. The 15 chapters of this book are divided into the periods mentioned.

Serra critically analyses the legal framework and practices in place around the

state administration, justice system, legal pluralism, regulation and the use of

natural resources.

Serra chooses three methodologies in writing the book: (i) chronological,

(ii) descriptive and (iii) analytical methods. The chronological and descrip-

tive methods are used to present the historical processes that have affected the

three topics of the book. The legal documents that have framed and currently

regulate the different subjects and other historically related processes are

described. The subtitle of the book, namely Avanços e Recuos na Construçao do

Direito Moçambicano (Developments and Retreats in the Construction of

Mozambican Law), identif‌ies the main argument, which Serra approaches

through the analytical method. He supports his thesis in a strategic way,

choosing themes that have been under scrutiny since their existence. While

doing so, the author gives the reader a lecture in history, law and, often, in

sociology.

The regulation and recognition of traditional authorities in Mozambique

have been matters of conf‌licting political interest since colonisation. Tradi-

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(2015) 2(1) Journal of Comparative Law in Africa 111

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