Governance Failure and the Administration of Justice in Africa: A Comparative Review of Judicial Capacity across Selected States

Abstract

The study focuses on reviewing the relationship between governance failure and the capacity of the administration of justice in African states. The objective of the study was to synthesise existing academic writings concerning dominant trends, debates and gaps in the literature related to governance failure and justice administration. The study adopted a qualitative comparative literature review deriving materials from secondary sources, including peer-reviewed journal articles, scholarly published books, and policy reports drawing attention to South Africa, Uganda, Botswana and Nigeria. The method comprehensively applied thematic and comparative evaluation with a directed focus on institutional theory to identify patterns, trends, divergence, convergence, and gaps in existing literature. The literature revealed that judicial capacity, centred around institutional independence, resource adequacy, and law enforcement effectiveness, is critical in a functional role to shape governance outcomes. A weak institutional justice system shows constituent correlation with corruption, declining trust, and political impunity, in contrast to stronger judicial institutions that foster enhanced accountability and regulatory compliance. The review also showed that governance failure is derived from complex interactions of political interference, administrative weakness, and limited access to justice rather than a single isolated factor. The study concluded that weaknesses in the administration of justice eroded independence of the judiciary, led to poor funding and endemic corruption, destabilised the rule of law and promoted governance failure. The study recommended reforms in Africa to retool the judiciary capacity and enable funding from the first line charge on the Consolidated Revenue Fund to secure financial autonomy and protect judicial independence from executive interference.