Colonial legal reforms defy pure economic or repressive explanations

Evidence

Although there is no question that in practice native justice was discriminatory and preserved full powers of repression to colonial authorities, the legal system elaborated by Ponty cannot be said to have been devised with only this end in mind. French actions in West Africa were far too complex to allow the attribution of all policy decisions to economic or political motivations. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 1163

Categorization

• QUESTION: Challenges the monocausal subjugation thesis; worth exploring what complex motives actually drove the 1912 legal reforms.
• XREF: connects to: Colonial criminal codes prioritized economically vital commodities in setting punishments — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 382; Colonial statute borrowing made Massachusetts and Virginia legal exporters — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 498; Commercial complexity made lawyers indispensable despite colonial hostility — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 519