Dr Peter Brett, BA (UCL), MSc (SOAS), PhD (SOAS)

Profile

Peter joined the School in 2015. Previously he was a Teaching Fellow in Politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), where he did his graduate studies. He has also worked as an Adjunct Professor at Richmond – the American International University in London, and has taught at the University of Paris (Panthéon-Sorbonne). While at Queen Mary he has taught regularly at the University of London in Paris. Between 2020 and 2024 he convened the British International Studies Association working group on Africa. 

Follow Peter Brett's research on Academia.edu.  

Teaching

POL259: The Politics of International Law 

POL372: Africa and International Politics 

These modules run in SEM A. Peter will be on leave in SEM B 2025-6. 

Research

Research Interests:

Research Interests: 

Peter has a broad range of interests, including the politics of Sub-Saharan Africa, international law, legal sociology, the politics of rights, and the history of international relations. He specialises in Southern and (Francophone) West Africa, but is currently preparing a biographical project investigating the international career of the Irish lawyer and statesman Seán MacBride. 

Examples of research funding: 

Peter's research into the politics of judicial appointments, with Sara Dezalay, was funded by a British Academy/Leverhulme Small Grant (2017-9). 

Examples of research funding:

Peter's research into the politics of judicial appointments, with Sara Dezalay, was funded by a British Academy/Leverhulme Small Grant (2017-9).

Publications

Books 

(with Line Engbo Gissel) Africa and the Backlash Against International Courts (Zed Books, 2020). 

Human Rights and the Judicialisation of African Politics (Routledge, 2018). 

Journal articles 

 “Black Judges in South Africa’s Legal Empire.” South African Historical Journal (forthcoming). 

"When Informal Ties with Political Leaders Protect Judges’ Fragile Independence: South Africa and Namibia after Apartheid." in Informality and Courts: Comparative Perspectives, edited by Björn Dressel, Raul Sanchez-Urribarri and Alexander Stroh (Edinburgh University Press, 2024), pp. 114-134. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/jj.17381668  

"The new politics of judicial appointments in Southern Africa." Law & Social Inquiry.  48:4 (2023): 1334-1364. https://doi.org/10.1017/lsi.2022.47 

"Revolutionary legality and the Burkinabè insurrection" The Journal of Modern African Studies. 59:3 (2021): 273-294. https://doi:10.1017/S0022278X21000136   

'Politics by Other Means in South Africa Today.' Journal of Law and Society. 47 (2020): 126-144. https://doi.org/10.1111/jols.12248 [open access]. 

"Who are Judicial Decisions Meant For? The ʽGlobal Community of Lawʼ in Southern Africa." International Political Science Review 39:5 (2018): 585-599. https://doi.org/10.1177/0192512118773449 

(with Line Engbo Gissel) "Explaining African Participation in International Courts." African Affairs 117:467 (2018): 195–216. https://doi.org/10.1093/afraf/ady005 

‘Cause lawyers sans frontières: juristes sud-africains et judiciarisation du politique en Afrique australe.’ Politique Africaine 138:2 (2015): 93-113. 

‘Explaining South Africa’s Bill of Rights: An Interpretive Approach.’ Commonwealth and Comparative Politics 52:3 (2014): 423-442. 

Review essays 

(with Line Engbo Gissel) ‘Extraversion’ in Encyclopedia of African Politics (Edward Elgar, forthcoming). 

"The Political Origins of the African Charter." African Studies Quarterly 23.2 (2025): 89-91. https://journals.flvc.org/ASQ/article/download/139415/145134  

“Dikgang Moseneke: His Own Liberator” South African Historical Journal (2025): https://doi.org/10.1080/02582473.2025.2521482  

Convenor and contributor: Book symposium, Adom Getachew: Worldmaking after Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-Determination, BISA Africa and International Studies working group (2021). 

‘The New Historiography of Human Rights.’ E-IR (February 2013). 

Selected blogs and opinion pieces 

‘Victors’ Justice, Double Standards, and the Civil Society Tribunals of the Late Cold War’, Afronomicslaw (February 2025). 

'Back to the bad old days of the OAU? Why there has never been a Pan-African consensus on the legitimacy of coups d’état' BISA Africa and International Studies blog (September 2024). 

'Lessons from history: Constitution and insurrection in Burkina Faso' The Daily Maverick (December 2019). 

'A Global Human Rights Movement?' OpenDemocracy (July 2013). 

Selected book reviews 

Annalena Kolloch, Faire la magistrature au Bénin: Careers, Self-Images and Independence of the Beninese Judiciary (1894–2016). In Africa 94:5 (2024). 

Tom Ginsburg and Nuno Garoupa, Judicial Reputation: A Comparative Theory, in Commonwealth and Comparative Politics 54:4 (2016). 

Karen Alter, The New Terrain of International Law, in E-IR (October 2014). 

Kathryn Sikkink, The Justice Cascade, in E-IR (June 2012).

Supervision

Peter would be interested in supervising PhDs on the politics of rights, international law and courts, legal professionals, and African states in the international system. He would also particularly welcome proposals relating to the domestic politics of South Africa, Namibia or Burkina Faso. 

Current PhD Students

Isaac Kimani Wangunyu. “Political Experience, Pre-Parliamentary Careers, Parties’ Selection Procedures and Effects on Legislative Behaviour Among Members of the East African Legislative Assembly.” 

Nicolas Anakwue. “The Hashtag Revolution: Examining the Role of Cultural Netizenship in Promoting Political Change in Sub-Saharan Africa.” 

Meredith Warren. “The advocacy politics of strategic climate change litigation.” 

Qi Xu. "Under what conditions will China initiate new institutional arrangements?"