Latest Articles

All years
Dream job in Seychelles
Dream job in Seychelles

The Chief Justice of Seychelles, Justice Mathilda Twomey, is stepping down from the position, and a search has begun to fill the post. Among other responsibilities, the Chief Justice sees to the discipline of legal practitioners in Seychelles and sits on the Supreme Court, the Constitutional Court and, ex officio, on the Court of Appeal.

More work needed on Ivory Coast's election commission - African Court
More work needed on Ivory Coast's election commission - African Court

For the second time, Ivory Coast has been taken to the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights over whether the country’s electoral commission is sufficiently independent and impartial. In 2016, the court found the then electoral commission seriously lacking, and in 2017 it gave a further decision spelling out and interpreting its earlier decision. The commission has been reworked since then but a different group of challengers have tested the new body, claiming it was still not sufficiently independent or impartial. In its decision given last week, the African Court found the applicants had not shown that the new electoral body was made up of members who were not independent and impartial. Nor had they shown that it was clearly balanced in favour of the ruling party. However, there were other issues that needed to be addressed. For example the court found that Ivory Coast had not fully complied with its obligations because of a ‘manifest imbalance’ in the number of chairpersons of the local electoral commissions proposed by the ruling party. The court ordered Ivory Coast to take the steps needed to remedy these shortcomings in its electoral commission ‘before any election’ is held. As national presidential elections are scheduled for the end of October this year, the court’s decision means urgent attention will have to be given to the issue or the polls will be susceptible to criticism for non-compliance with this ruling.

New book points to solutions for civil case backlogs
New book points to solutions for civil case backlogs

When the deputy chief justice of Namibia writes a book on court-managed civil procedure in that country’s high court, then judges in many countries should pay attention. That's because it is written by the judge who is widely regarded as the architect of Namibia's new and highly successful system, and he has made sure that his book will be informative and helpful for other countries wanting to follow the same path - towards judicial case management and a dramatic reduction in civil case backlogs.

Preserve your independence, court urges Namibian election commission
Preserve your independence, court urges Namibian election commission

A full bench of Namibia’s high court has found that the country’s electoral commission acted unlawfully when it removed certain approved names from the list of candidates supplied by a political party and allowed other party members to replace them and be sworn-in, instead. Two members of Namibia’s Popular Democratic Movement brought the application when the electoral commission permitted a number of PDM members, not on the PDM list approved by the electoral commission before the polls, to replace those who had been approved by the commission. In its decision, the court said the commission acted beyond its powers in allowing the party to substitute names after the elections. It could not allow parties to ‘parade’ candidates for election and then after the polls, ‘put up totally different persons who were never “marketed” to voters as candidates.’

African Court tells Tanzania: your constitution violates basic rights
African Court tells Tanzania: your constitution violates basic rights

Africa’s premier regional court, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, has found that Tanzania’s constitution is in breach of the African Charter and other international law. This is because it provides that no one may test the results of Tanzania’s presidential elections in court. Tanzanian advocate, Jebra Kambole, brought the litigation in the African Court saying his rights under the African Charter had been violated. Finding in favour of Kambole’s application, the court ordered that Tanzania amend its constitution to remove this violation. Tanzania was also given 12 months to submit a report on what had been done to implement the terms of the judgment, and was ordered to publish the court’s decision on the websites of the Judiciary, and of the Ministry for Constitutional and Legal Affairs. The judgment text is to remain on these websites for at least a year after publication.

Woman candidate from Malawi’s 2019 elections wins court order for fresh polls in her constituency
Woman candidate from Malawi’s 2019 elections wins court order for fresh polls in her constituency

A new round of national elections was held in Malawi during June, after courts in that country held that the polls of May 2019 had been invalid because of the extent of the irregularities during the elections. But not all the polling is done: last month, just as fresh national elections were taking place, the high court declared that the May 2019 elections in one constituency was invalid. The judge said he was satisfied that the parliamentary elections in Phalombe North were affected by various irregularities. He declared that the candidate previously held to be the winner was not validly chosen and he ordered that another election had to be held for that constituency within 60 days.

Copyright & A2K Issues - 13 July 2020

This is a free online international Information Service covering various topics, including copyright, plagiarism and other IP matters, Open Access, open publishing, open learning resources, institutional repositories, scholarly communication, digitization and library matters, mobile technologies, issues affecting access to knowledge (A2K), particularly in developing countries; WTO and WIPO treaties and matters; Free Trade Agreements and TRIPS Plus; useful websites, conference alerts, etc.  Archives are available at:  http://www.africanlii.org/content/copyright-a2k-information .  If you would like to subscribe to, or unsubscribe from, this newsletter, please do so at:  http://lists.wits.ac.za/mailman/listinfo/copyrightanda2kinfo    or email  Denise.Nicholson@wits.ac.za  only (N.B. PLEASE DO NOT SEND TO WHOLE MAILING LIST)

Court slams father's attempt to avoid maintenance for his daughter, 6
Court slams father's attempt to avoid maintenance for his daughter, 6

An apparently wealthy property owner, politically well-connected and a major player in Zimbabwe's guest accommodation industry, is in trouble with the Harare high court. That's because he has been doing all he can to make sure his 6 year old daughter does not get the maintenance the mother says she needs. The man - unnamed to protect the child's identity - 'divested himself of assets' to defeat the mother's claim for a maintenance increase. He formed a trust to which he donated all his income-generating properties. Though the child was listed as a beneficiary, the 'trustees' resolved at a board meeting that she would not receive maintenance 'to the disadvantage of other beneficiaries'. The trustees also decided that during the current year 'no beneficiary was to ... benefit from the trust, including the minor child'. According to the judges, the 'inescapable conclusion' from the facts was that the father formed the trust to ensure the child did not get maintenance. The problem of men who go to extraordinary lengths, including legal stratagems to avoid their financial responsibilities to wives and children, is not uncommon but rarely surfaces in court.

Congratulations to Namibia on its achievements in preventing human trafficking
Congratulations to Namibia on its achievements in preventing human trafficking

Namibia has become the only African country to make it to the world’s top-ranking list, ‘Tier 1’, in the fight against human trafficking. This has brought the number of countries worldwide, recognised as Tier 1, to 34 in 2020. Countries at this level have fully met the international standards for the elimination of human trafficking.

High Court in Zimbabwe orders woman be recommended for Mvuthu chieftainship vacancy
High Court in Zimbabwe orders woman be recommended for Mvuthu chieftainship vacancy

When their chiefly father died leaving only three daughters, the eldest of them, Silibaziso Mlotshwa, might have seemed the obvious choice to succeed to the Mvuthu chieftainship. But instead her uncle, Saunders Mlotshwa, got the nod from the government's district administrator. This followed a meeting of the Mlotshwa men at which they said a female chief ‘would be an insult’. Now, however, the high court in Bulawayo has ordered that the administrator propose the daughter’s name for the vacant position. The judge said it was unconstitutional to discriminate against her and that the earlier recommendation that the uncle should take the throne was unlawful.