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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Janine Ubink  and
Sindiso Mnisi Weeks
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Abstract

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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Articles
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 51 , Issue 4 , December 2017 , pp. 825 - 858
Copyright
© 2017 Law and Society Association.

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Footnotes

The research in Malawi was made possible by a generous grant from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) VENI grant program for the project “Customary Legal Empowerment: A new approach to improving women's property rights” (Project No. 016.125.253). The research in South Africa was conducted under the auspices of the Rural Women's Action-Research Programme at the University of Cape Town. Our gratitude goes out to Victoria Huwa for research assistance, to Christa Rautenbach for feedback on earlier drafts.

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