TY - JOUR
T1 - Talking Law in Times of Reform
T2 - Paradoxes of Legal Entitlement in Cameroon
AU - Munoz Martin, Jose
PY - 2011/12
Y1 - 2011/12
N2 - Based on ethnographic fieldwork carried out between 2003 and 2005, this article examines how legality is constructed in present-day Adamaoua Province, Cameroon. Focusing on an instance of a process locally referred to as la concertation, I analyze how state officials and cattle traders gather to discuss the practical fate of law. As a heightened moment of suspended enforcement, la concertation is productive for both officials, who work out the limits of their respective spheres of authority and imagine a trade based on business norms and practices that severely limit the scope of regulatory action, and traders, who manage to stave off the increased scrutiny that income tax law presupposes, while asserting their concern for the integrity and consistency of the law.
AB - Based on ethnographic fieldwork carried out between 2003 and 2005, this article examines how legality is constructed in present-day Adamaoua Province, Cameroon. Focusing on an instance of a process locally referred to as la concertation, I analyze how state officials and cattle traders gather to discuss the practical fate of law. As a heightened moment of suspended enforcement, la concertation is productive for both officials, who work out the limits of their respective spheres of authority and imagine a trade based on business norms and practices that severely limit the scope of regulatory action, and traders, who manage to stave off the increased scrutiny that income tax law presupposes, while asserting their concern for the integrity and consistency of the law.
U2 - 10.1111/j.1540-5893.2011.00460.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1540-5893.2011.00460.x
M3 - Article
VL - 45
SP - 893
EP - 921
JO - Law & Society Review
JF - Law & Society Review
SN - 0023-9216
IS - 4
ER -