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 Periodical article |
 Leiden University catalogue |
 WorldCat |
| Title: | Unification or continuing pluralism in family law in anglophone Africa: past experience, present realities, and future possibilities |
| Author: | Woodman, G.R. |
| Year: | 1988 |
| Periodical: | Lesotho Law Journal: A Journal of Law and Development |
| Volume: | 4 |
| Issue: | 2 |
| Pages: | 33-79 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | English-speaking Africa |
| Subjects: | customary law family law conflict of laws |
| Abstract: | A discussion of the issues relating to legislative reform of family law in anglophone Africa must take into account the existence of two distinct types of legal pluralism: State law pluralism, whose constituent systems are received law and lawyers' customary law (i.e. native laws and customs as applied in State legal systems) and deep legal pluralism, constituted by State law and by sociologists' customary law (i.e. socially accepted, non-State norms of behaviour observable through social scientific inquiry). While it is relatively easy to make changes through legislation to State law pluralism, it is difficult to do so to deep legal pluralism. Consequently, some States may in the future achieve unification of State law, but, since the legislative measures will not affect social practice, they are likely to increase the divergence between State law and sociologists' customary law. In the light of these suggestions, the author considers the arguments for and against unification. Policies in favour of unification rely on notions of ideal law, of equality, of simplicity, of nationbuilding and of modernizaton. Policies entailing continued legal pluralism are based on arguments for State non-activism and appeals to traditionalism. Notes, ref. |