Ascertainment Of Customary Laws In South Sudan PDF Download

This report analyzes the current justice system in Southern Sudan, focusing on the relationship between customary chiefs' courts and government courts and the ways that litigants navigate both types of courts in practice. Based on extensive interviews with litigants, chiefs, and court officials, the report argues that the line between chiefs' and government courts is blurred and that litigants prize the system's hybridity and flexibility, as they often seek restorative and consensual dispute resolution over retribution. The report's analysis suggests that current justice reform efforts, aiming at stricter jurisdictional limitations and the ascertainment of customary law, may reduce litigants' abilities to achieve the justice they want, undermine fairness, and exacerbate local conflict. Interventions should keep the current system's flexibility intact and focus on long-term education and information efforts. Where such knowledge resources are available, there is evidence that individual litigants deploy them in their disputes and cases, contributing to the gradual processes of change that the flexibility of local justice engenders.