Under-resourced administrators weakened the intended legal reforms from the start.

Evidence

These principles for the prosecution and the punishment of crimes were to be applied in the subdivision and the circle courts. However, because the new decree made the commandants primarily responsible for seeing that justice was properly rendered in criminal cases, it was questionable to what extent such principles would be upheld. Already overburdened with administrative tasks, inexperienced as judges, and concerned with maintaining order, the administrators were not likely candidates for reforming custom in keeping with the spirit of criminal law as it was practiced in the West. To compensate for this lack of experience, Panty introduced one final innovation, designed to carry to fruition his goal of civilizing Africans. He extended the accused’s rights of appeal and the Chambre d’homologation’s powers of review in Dakar to all judicial proceedings in West Africa. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 435

Categorization

• QUESTION: The gap between legal decree and local enforcement capacity recurs throughout colonial rule; worth tracking how it shaped actual outcomes.
• XREF: connects to: Early reform failed because cities lacked administrative tools like budgets — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 256