Reconstructing Law and Justice in a Postcolony

Okafo, Nonso

doi:10.4324/9781315604022

Cited by 3 publications

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“…This opens up possibilities for state courts to oversee the adjudicative work of customary courts, as well as for the development of checks and balances that can ensure adherence to procedural and substantive standards. Such a system has for instance, been introduced in Namibia (Peters and Ubink ), Botswana (Kumar ), and Nigeria (Bello et al ; Okafo ).…”

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Courting Custom: Regulating Access to Justice in Rural South Africa and Malawi

Ubink¹,

Weeks²

2017

Law Soc Rev

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The continued relevance of customary law for the regulation of the daily lives of Africa's citizens poses serious governance challenges to sovereign states, such as how best to regulate customary dispute settlement. While confronted with largely similar problems, the South African government proposed to enhance and regulate the position of its traditional courts, whereas Malawi has opted for the creation of hybrid local courts that combine characteristics of regular state courts and customary fora to be the main avenue of customary law cases. This paper analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of both approaches and displays how the two countries’ historical and political contexts enable and constrain their regulatory choices in the field of customary dispute settlement, as well as influence the risk and benefits of the various options. In this respect, the political power of the traditional leaders is a significant determinant.

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confidence: 99%

Courting Custom: Regulating Access to Justice in Rural South Africa and Malawi

Ubink¹,

Weeks²

2017

Law Soc Rev

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Impact of Oil and Gas Exploration and Infrastructure in Niger Delta on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

Jatto

2024

New Security Challenges

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Access to justice: an evaluation of the informal justice systems

Ahmad

Wangenheim

2021

Lib. Arts Soc. Sci. Int. J.

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The judicial system of any state can be divided as formal and informal, where the formal is under the state (official) and informal may or may not be under the domain of the state (informal justice system). Since both systems provide access to justice, however, the informal system is viewed as a threat to formal justice system. In this context we need to better understand the role played by informal justices system. We have focused on three fundamental issues, first to evaluate the role of the alternate and informal justice system to improve access to justice. Second, we listed weaknesses in informal justice systems that gives us an insight into our third goal of suggesting a framework for engaging informal justice system and improved on its shortcomings which can be helpful in supporting or reducing the burden on the formal system. Because of the absence of relevant literature, we resorted to empirical reports and case studies on other developing countries’ to present our arguments. We showed that informal system is playing a positive role in the society and there is a need to reform the system especially for its negative traits, e.g., human rights.

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Reconstructing Law and Justice in a Postcolony

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

Courting Custom: Regulating Access to Justice in Rural South Africa and Malawi

Courting Custom: Regulating Access to Justice in Rural South Africa and Malawi

Impact of Oil and Gas Exploration and Infrastructure in Niger Delta on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

Access to justice: an evaluation of the informal justice systems

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