Document Type

Article

Publication Title

African Journal of Legal Studies

Abstract

Rules and norms of behaviour are common features in human society. This is confirmed by human being’s desire for protection, fairness and mutual respect from fellow humans in their social groups. Recognized authorities whose sanctions are respected help to ensure fairness and mutual respect for each other. For the traditional Benin (African) society, the issue of law and justice is the joint concern of the deities, ancestors and the human members within the society. The aim of this paper, is to examine (i) the relevance of traditional justice system in postcolonial Benin (African) society; and (ii) the unwavering respect for traditional values which the Benin (African) people have maintained even in a postcolonial era; and argue that the continual preference for traditional methods of obtaining justice by the people of Benin (Africa) are not unconnected with the inherent limitations of the received English legal system within an African terrain. As insiders, we propose a harmonization of a ‘euro-afro-centric judicial system, for we believe that this would be beneficial and progressive for us as a people in quest for justice in a postcolonial Benin (African) society.

Pages

123-135

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DOI

https://doi.org/10.1163/17087384-12342017

Volume

6

Issue

1

Publication Date

2013

Keywords

rule of law, traditional justice system, limitation of English legal system, harmonization of a Afro-Euro-centric judicial system, postcolonial Benin society

Disciplines

Religion

ISSN

2210-9730

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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

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