Claire-Anne Lester is a lecturer in Sociology in the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. She has a PhD in Sociology and interdisciplinary MPhil. in Politics and Public Law. Her research currently focuses on Commissions of Inquiry as colonial legal and institutional forms, particularly their use in investigating state violence in the mining sector. Ongoing research interests include Critical Legal Sociology, Political Transitions, Transitional Justice, Capital and Labour, Development and Social Reproduction.