Issa Shivji's book, first published in 1990 provided the first detailed analysis of the fundamental legal foundations of the union in 1964 between Tanganyika and Zanzibar which led to the birth of the United Republic of Tanzania. Used by students of law, politics and the Tanzania union as a basic reference work the book is a product of wide ranging scholarship and close analysis of legal texts that constitute the primary sources of the Union-and the author's long engagement with the morality of constitutional politics that bear on Zanzibar's status in the Union. Out of print for over a decade this second expanded edition includes a few minor revisions, comments and references have been put in square brackets to distinguish them from the original text.