Issa Shivji presently occupies the Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Research Chair in Pan-African Studies of the University of Dar es Salaam. He was born in Kilosa, Tanzania, in 1946 and obtained his LLB in 1970 at the University of East Africa, his LLM in 1971 at the University of London (LSE), and his PhD in 1982 at the University of Dar Es Salaam. For thirty-six years, he was professor in Constitutional Law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Dar Es Salaam. He has also been advocate of the High Court and the Court of Appeal in Tanzania since 1977 and of the High Court in Zanzibar since 1989.From 1991 to 1992 he was Chair of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into Land Matters in Tanzania. His numerous publications, both books and articles, focus on the politicaleconomy of law and development in Tanzania, on land tenure and, more generally, on human rights, democracy and development in Africa. His books include Class Struggles in Tanzania (1976), Law, State and the Working Class in Tanzania: c. 1920–1964 (1986) and Not Yet Democracy: Land Tenure Reform in Tanzania (1998). Most recently, he has been working on the political economy of economic reforms in Tanzania.While mostly based in Tanzania, he has been visiting professor in various locations: El Colegio De Mexico, the University of Zimbabwe, the University ofWarwick, the National Law School of India University, the University of Hong Kong, the Centre of African Studies of the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and CODESRIA, Dakar, Senegal. He was elected the president of theMedia Council of Tanzania which is anon-governmental watchdog to promote, defend and advocate for media freedom in Tanzania.