Some preliminary observations on the administration of justice in a one party African State: the Tanzanian experience

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Periodical article

Title:	Some preliminary observations on the administration of justice in a one party African State: the Tanzanian experience
Author:	Kumar, Umesh
Year:	1986
Periodical:	Lesotho Law Journal: A Journal of Law and Development
Volume:	2
Issue:	1
Pages:	119-154
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Tanzania
Subjects:	legal systems one-party systems
Abstract:	Taking the Tanzanian case as a paradigm, the author analyses the implications of party supremacy for the administration of justice. He begins by examining the concept of party supremacy and its legal entrenchment in Tanzania, and then goes on to look at some aspects of the judicial system and process. The interaction between party supremacy and the judicial process is examined with the help of some real and some hypothetical conflict situations. In Tanzania, the task of devising appropriate political, legal and institutional arrangements for the efficient functioning of a form of democracy compatible with a one-party system was not carried out satisfactorily, and this is reflected in the socioeconomic and political problems which have continued to confront the country. A democratic, one-pary State must have at least a vigorous parliament composed largely of directly elected representatives of the people, a Bill of Rights to check the executive and party excesses and to safeguard the dignity and freedoms of the individual, and an independent judiciary for an efficient administration of justice. Tanzania scarcely meets these requirements. Notes, ref.