ACCESS TO JUSTICE FOR THE POOR OF MALAWI? AN ... - GSDRC

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ased violence works extensively uses initiation counsellors, church leaders,religious leaders and traditional leaders in their civic education initiatives.Some respondents also observed that the merit of consolidating the links between theformal and the informal lay in the fact that will simplify the task of ascertainingcustomary law and promote the cross-sharing of knowledge between the formal andinformal. It was also observed that strengthening the link would also enhanceenforcement of judgement in the formal system. This is due to the fact that VillageHeadmen, unlike court marshals, live with the people and are better understood bytheir subjects. Most people are skeptical of court officials and hold the view that theyare just bent on victimising them. Consequently, joint enforcement of judgements willbe more acceptable and effective.Others however noted that there is need to draw a clear demarcation between thepowers of the chiefs and those of magistrates to minimise conflicts, which sometimesarise between them. The study has revealed that magistrates do not always have goodrelationships with some chiefs due to apparent power struggles. Some chiefs believetheir powers have been taken away and they refuse to assist courts. Some magistratesfelt that they could not work with chiefs whom they consider illiterate. The majorityof magistrates, however, thought that these were matters to be resolved by invitingtraditional leaders to court user meetings.In summary, it is our view that there is merit in strengthening the link between theformal and informal. However, we believe that the actual form this would take is amatter of detail. The only thing that should be avoided is to swallow the informal intothe formal because it will kill the positive attributes of the informal and just placeanother financial burden on the state. The informal system should be left to operateindependently subject to the supervision of Resident Magistrate. This necessarilymeans that the judiciary must facilitate the elevation of all district courts to ResidentMagistrate Courts. These courts must be manned by a person who is well learned inlaw and whose primary responsibility shall be to supervise all dispute resolutionforums in a particular district. The relationship between this magistrate and the chiefswill be akin to that presently enjoyed the District Commissioner and the Chiefs. Thiswill not be strange because historically the District Commissioner doubled as adistrict magistrate.A STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF THE CASE-LOAD FOR THE YEAR 2001 INTHE SUBORDINATE COURTS IN THE NTCHISI, MZIMBA/MZUZU ANDMANGOCHI DISTRICTS AS WELL AS OF THE LILONGWE DISTRICTCOURTS.The main purpose of the statistical analysis of the case-load for the year 2001 in thefour geographic areas of research was:• To ascertain the type of cases that were processed in these during a one-yearperiod and to assess the volume of cases to these courts; and• To ascertain the speed with which these cases were finalised in these courts.28
The report provides detailed results of this empirical research, but a broad overview isbest illustrated by way of the following Figures (numbered in the accordance with thenumbering in the Report) that graphically represent the type and number of finalisedcases in each of the four districts as well as the speed of throughput of cases:60Figure 1: Type and number of finalised criminal cases for theyear 2001 in the Ntchisi district50403020100TheftOther propertycrimesUnlawfulwoundingAssault(common&GBH)Other violentcrimesOther seriouscrimesPetty crimesSeries1 60 14 25 19 9 5 9Figure 2: Throughput of finalised criminal cases for the year 2001 in theNtchisi districtThree months ormore9%More than 1month but lessthan 3 months13%Less than 1 week47%Less than 1 month31%29
Page 1 and 2: ACCESS TO JUSTICE FOR THE POOR OF M
Page 5 and 6: THE SUBORDINATE COURTSHistory and c
Page 7 and 8: preside over persons who were gover
Page 9 and 10: legality or correctness of any find
Page 11 and 12: efuse to be deployed to rural areas
Page 13 and 14: were more conversant with local cus
Page 15 and 16: orally deliver judgement and the cl
Page 17 and 18: Failure to distinguish civil cases
Page 19 and 20: against the defendants on grounds t
Page 21 and 22: societal values in order to bring t
Page 23 and 24: Human Resource and Management Issue
Page 25 and 26: Although this situation looks very
Page 27: needs to find ways of consolidating
Page 31 and 32: Figure 5: Type and number of finali
Page 33 and 34: Figure 7: Type and number of a samp
Page 35 and 36: Figure 10: Throughput of finalised
Page 37 and 38: Figure 13: Type and number of final
Page 39 and 40: THE CUSTOMARY JUSTICE FORUMSIntrodu
Page 41 and 42: JurisdictionCustomary justice forum
Page 43 and 44: democratic environment. In this reg
Page 45 and 46: Views of the informal justice syste
Page 47 and 48: prerogative of transferring them to
Page 49 and 50: comparative advantage over existing
Page 51: offices and magistrates courts. The

ACCESS TO JUSTICE FOR THE POOR OF MALAWI? AN ... - GSDRC

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