Human Rights Quarterly

This article examines the extent to which the British and French colonial legacies influence the human rights behavior of post-colonial African states. We have examined three areas where the literature suggests different colonial experiences for former British and French colonies: legal systems, formal provisions for judicial independence, and emergency powers. Our findings show very little support that different colonial legacies in those three areas affect the level of state abuse of personal integrity in sub-Saharan Africa. We find no solid evidence, for example, that common law system countries have better human rights behavior than civil code system countries. Nor is there any support for the propositions that former French colonies would have less constitutional provisions for judicial independence and checks against the executive during times of emergency than English colonies. Indeed, contrary to expectations, it is the French-legacy states that have * Linda Camp Keith is Assistant Professor of Political Science, School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas. Her current research interests are human rights and the rule of law, as well as the US Supreme Court. She has published research on human rights in Political Research Quarterly, International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Peace Research, Judicature, and Human Rights Quarterly. Her work on the US Supreme Court has been published in Judicature, American Journal of Politics, Social Science Quarterly, and Social Science History and includes a forthcoming book on the judicial review. ** Ayo Ogundele, Professor of Political Science, Kilgore College. His current research interests are the US Supreme Court, particularly its early years, and the courts of western Africa. He has published research on the Supreme Court in American Journal of Politics, Social Science Quarterly, and Social Science History. He has presented numerous papers on the Nigerian Supreme Court and the courts of Western Africa. Vol. 29 1066 HUMAN RIGHTS QUARTERLY stronger protections for emergency powers, perhaps suggesting recognition of the broad powers of the president in the bequeathed French political system and the need to curtail some of those powers. Likewise, we find little evidence that these elements affect their human rights behavior.