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Revolutionary legality and the Burkinabè insurrection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 August 2021

Peter Brett
Peter Brett*
Affiliation:
Queen Mary – University of London, LondonEN1 4NS, UK
*
Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Coup leaders often purport to restore constitutional order. During Burkina Faso's 2014 ‘insurrection', however, Blaise Compaoré's opponents advanced detailed (international) legal arguments that significantly constrained their subsequent conduct. Theirs was to be a legal revolution. This article situates this stance within Burkina Faso's distinctive history of urban protest, whilst emphasising under-analysed international sources for the insurrection. ‘Insurgent’ lawyers, it argues, used international instruments to reinvigorate longstanding activist attempts to reconcile constitutional rights with a language of popular justice promoted by the revolutionary regime of Thomas Sankara (1983–7). After the insurrection, however, their emphasis on legality was used by Compaoré's supporters to expose the transitional authorities’ double-standards. Meanwhile, insurgent lawyers working for the transition had to work hard to reconcile (international) legal justifications for the insurrection with the expedient politics needed to defend the new dispensation.

Keywords

Burkina Fasorevolutioninsurrectionconstitutionalisminternational law
Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 59 , Issue 3 , September 2021 , pp. 273 - 294
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

This manuscript benefited from excellent comments on earlier versions. The journal's anonymous reviewers were exceptionally helpful and generous with their time. The text was also much improved by feedback from Eloïse Bertrand, Emillie Flower and participants in Queen Mary's TheoryLab workshop. The greatest thanks, however, must go to Anselme Asseghna Somda, for all manner of help and support over the last five years.

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Interviews

Kassoum Kambou, President of the Constitutional Council [group interview], Ouagadougou, 21.2.2016.Google Scholar
Ollo Mathias Kambou, Balai Citoyen, Ouagadougou, 18.4.2016, 7.8.2019.Google Scholar
David Moyenga, National Transitional Council (2014–15), Ouagadougou, 18.4.2016, 7.8.2019.Google Scholar
Anselme Asseghna Somda, National Transitional Council (2014–15), Paris and Ouagadougou, 22.2.2016, 18.4.2016, 8.2.2018, 7.8.2019.Google Scholar
Anonymous EU diplomat, Ouagadougou, 20.4.2016.Google Scholar
Anonymous ex-majority parliamentarian, Ouagadougou, 15.4.2016.Google Scholar
Anonymous former National Transitional Council member, Ouagadougou, 13.4.2016.Google Scholar