The Future of Customary Law in Africa

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511844294.004

3 - The Future of Customary Law in Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2012

Edited by

Paolo Galizzi and

Abdulmumini A. Oba: Affiliation:
University of Ilorin, Nigeria
Jeanmarie Fenrich: Affiliation:
School of Law, Fordham University, United States of America
Paolo Galizzi: Affiliation:
School of Law, Fordham University, United States of America
Tracy E. Higgins: Affiliation:
School of Law, Fordham University, United States of America

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Summary

Introduction

African customary law was the dominant legal system in much of pre-colonial sub-Saharan Africa. With the advent of colonialism in Africa in the middle of the nineteenth century, customary law gradually lost its primacy to the European-style legal systems and laws brought by the colonizing nations. The common law, civil law, and, to some extent, Roman-Dutch law became the general law and the primary legal system in many African countries in the colonial and post-colonial eras. In addition, Islamic law had emerged as the dominant law in some places in the continent prior to colonialism. Islamic law is different from customary law, even though the British colonial authorities decreed in some of their colonies that Islamic law is a customary law. With these developments, customary law lost and never regained its status as a full-fledged legal system in modern African nation states.

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Type: Chapter
Information: The Future of African Customary Law , pp. 58 - 80

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511844294.004 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2011

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