What explains divergences in political liberalism among new nations that shared the same colonial heritage? This book assembles exciting original essays on former colonies of the British Empire in South Asia Africa and Southeast Asia that gained independence after World War II. The interdisciplinary country specialists reveal how inherent contradictions within British colonial rule were resolved after independence in contrasting liberal-legal despotic and volatile political orders. Through studies of the longue durée and particular events this book presents a theory of political liberalism in the post-colony and develops rich hypotheses on the conditions under which the legal complex civil society and the state shape alternative postcolonial trajectories around political freedom. This provocative volume presents new perspectives for scholars and students of postcolonialism political development and the politics of the legal complex as well as for policy makers and publics who struggle to construct and defend basic legal freedoms.

Part I. Liberal-Legal Orders: 1. Emasculating the executive: the federal court and civil liberties in late colonial India: 1942–4 Rohit De; 2. The legal complex in the struggle to control police brutality in India Charles R. Epp; 3. Priests in the temple of justice: the Indian legal complex and the basic structure doctrine Manoj Mate; Part II. Despotic Orders: 4. Lawyers politics and publics: state management of lawyers and legitimacy in Singapore Jothie Rajah; 5. Lawyers and the disintegration of the legal complex in Sudan Mark Fathi Massoud; 6. The Sri Lankan legal complex and the liberal project: only thus far and no more Deepika Udagama; Part III. Volatile Orders: 7. 'Custodian of civil liberties and justice in Malaysia': the Malaysian bar and the moderate state Andrew Harding and Amanda Whiting; 8. Liberal protagonists? The lawyers' movement in Pakistan Sadaf Aziz; 9. Miscarriage of chief justice: judicial power and the legal complex in Pakistan under Musharraf Shoaib A. Ghias; 10. From judicial autonomy to regime transformation: the role of the lawyers' movement in Pakistan Daud Munir; 11. Postcolonial liberalism and the legal complex in Zambia: elegy or triumph? Jeremy Gould; 12. Legal complexes and the fight for political liberalism in new African democracies: comparative insights from Malawi Zambia and Namibia Peter Von Doepp; 13. Judge and company: courts constitutionalism and the legal complex Malcolm M. Feeley.