The judiciaries in common law (or anglophone) African countries must take substantial responsibility for the collapse of constitutional government and with it of the constitutional framework for the protection of human rights in postindependence Africa. In the immediate aftermath of independence, the judiciary in many of the anglophone African countries deliberately and knowingly abdicated its constitutional role to protect human rights and, in many cases, actively connived in the subversion of constitutional rule and constitutional rights by the executive arm of government. The description and analysis of the role of the judiciary in the protection of human rights in postindependence common law Africa is preceded by a brief sketch of the origins of Bills of Rights in these systems and the political-constitutional environment for the protection of human rights immediately after independence. Notes, ref.