Judicial Politics on the Ground

This symposium focuses on judicial politics at the micro level. Its aim is to shed light on justice in action, drawing on an ethnographic approach to explore the routine decision‐making practices of judges and other legal actors, and to study their interactions with citizens and politicians. Each article is based on close observation of the interactions between legal professionals and administrative actors who are at the frontline in local and lower courts. By examining a variety of jurisdictions around the globe, the articles in this symposium offer fresh insight into “judicial politics on the ground.”     

Burundi: des identités ethnico-politiques forgées dans la violence

Taking the recent political situation as background, the author examines the rhetoric of political propaganda in Burundi. By considering several texts, both written (newspaper articles, politicians’ statements, political leaflets) and oral (speeches and radio declarations), of which long excerpts are reproduced, the author is able to demonstrate that all parties call for violence in Burundi, regardless of political side. The Other, whoever he may be, is systematically denied the right to exist; meanwhile, the exercise of violence appears as a means of delimiting the space belonging to each group. This in turn legitimates and generalizes daily use of violence.