Martin Chanock's definitive perspective on the development of South Africa's legal system in the early twentieth century examines all areas of the law: criminal law and criminology; the Roman-Dutch law; the State's African law; Land, Labour and "Rule of Law" questions. His revisionist analysis of the South African legal culture illustrates the larger processes of legal colonization, while the consideration of the interaction between imported doctrine and legislative models with local contexts and approaches also provides a basis for understanding the refashioning of law under circumstances of postcolonialism and globalization.