18 - Sub-Saharan Africa

Summary

For a variety of reasons, countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have retained the legal systems that had been imposed on them during the colonial period. The question that this chapter tries to respond to is whether, after six decades of independence, particularly after the fairly fundamental constitutional reforms that started in the 1990s, there have been any significant changes made to these legal systems. In other words, have the recent legal reforms resulted in the emergence of laws that are distinct and better suited to meeting the peculiar challenges of the sub-continent and have a distinct identity within or without the legal traditions they inherited? The chapter, among other things, examines the main trends in legal reforms, and highlights the nature and scope of legal changes in certain key areas. It is against this background that a comparative analysis is undertaken to assess the impact of the different legal reforms on the quality of justice and respect for the rule of law. The chapter concludes by pointing out that although there remains a clear common law/civil law divide on the continent and that no Sub-Saharan African legal system is emerging, there are some distinct sub-regional features, such as a special mix of Roman-Dutch/English common law in operation in southern Africa.