When Lawfare Becomes Warfare: Personal Stories, Political Landscapes
CODESRIA Bulletin Online, No. 4, June 2026
Issa G. Shivji, Professor Emeritus, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
When the bourgeoisie feels confident, when there is relative peace and stability, and when the class struggle is at a low ebb, bourgeois rule expresses itself through law. Law becomes the site of contestation and struggle. Lawfare has a dual character. In so-called peaceful times, the ruling class uses law in various ways to dominate and hegemonise its interests. The process has its own contradictions, creating cracks in the state’s legal armoury. These are prised open by subordinate classes, giving public expression to their interests. Thus, subordinate classes bring their grievances to the public domain. I call this insurgent lawfare.
When the bourgeoisie is in crisis, when the state is fractured, when the class struggle is intense and the system feels threatened, the veneer of law is dispensed with. Lawfare becomes warfare—openly, viciously and brutally. There is no more pretence of rule of law, human rights and judicial intervention. The repressive apparatuses of the state show their true colour—force. Consensus breaks down. Coercion comes forth—naked, unmasked, shameless. Spaces for insurgent lawfare are narrowed or closed. Such is the situation internationally where the contradictions of financialised racial capitalism are concentrated in Gaza.
In Tanzania, together with my colleagues, I have been involved in insurgent lawfare for over forty years. Last year in October, during the general election, I had the misfortune of witnessing the warfare. In this presentation I weave the narrative of lawfare becoming warfare through personal stories, anecdotes and memories.
