Trajectories of International Engagement with State and Local Actors: Evidence from South Sudan

Maxwell, Daniel; Gordon, R.; Moro, Leben Nelson; Santschi, Martina; Dau, Philip

doi:10.1080/17502977.2017.1371876

Cited by 1 publication

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“…The hunger courts provide an example of how legal norms and institutions during times of famine can be used to help people survive. Since the 1980s a small, vibrant literature has noticed how people experiencing famine use social networks to survive (Corbett, 1988; Maxwell et al., 2018; Vaughan, 1992; de Waal, 1989; Young and Maxwell, 2013). Chol, Harragin, Maxwell and others have described how local institutions, such as kinship and clan networks, play an important role in building adaptive capacity and household resilience to hunger (Maxwell et al., 2012) and show that the most vulnerable are those without an adequate kinship system (Harragin and Chol, 1998).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Law and Famine: Learning from the Hunger Courts in South Sudan

Pendle¹

2023

Development and Change

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Activists and scholars are seeking to end famine by promoting international legal accountability for starvation. This article deepens our understanding of the relationship between the politics of famine and law by observing the ongoing prevalence and power of legal norms and institutions during times of famine. It reveals the widespread use of hunger courts in famine‐prone South Sudan and their role in legally enforcing social networks that provide for the most vulnerable. Based on analysis of country‐wide survey data from 2018 and 2019, qualitative interviews from 2019‒22 and in‐depth ethnographic observations of hunger courts in one chiefdom in South Sudan during a period of famine‐level hunger in 2018 and 2019, the article argues that hunger courts have played a key role in enforcing social networks. These courts have also supported continuity of chiefs’ authority despite crisis. The article concludes by addressing two issues: whether law is necessarily emancipatory in times of famine, and whether legal norms have shifted responsibility for hunger away from the political economies and conflicts that cause famine, instead placing blame and shame on the families of the most vulnerable.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Law and Famine: Learning from the Hunger Courts in South Sudan

Pendle¹

2023

Development and Change

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Trajectories of International Engagement with State and Local Actors: Evidence from South Sudan

Cited by 1 publication

References 13 publications

Law and Famine: Learning from the Hunger Courts in South Sudan

Law and Famine: Learning from the Hunger Courts in South Sudan

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