Lawyers Against the Law? Judges and the Legal Profession in Rhodesia and Zimbabwe

This negative image of lawyers as a dishonest profession which feeds on the innocent's miseries is almost as old as the legal profession and has sometimes resulted in shortsighted, emotional and retrogressive measures against the legal profession such as its abolition in France soon after the 1789 Revolution and in Russia in the aftermath of the 1917 Socialist Revolution. In contrast to the above perceptions, lawyers often see themselves and their profession as custodians of every society's civilisation. For example, Justice Maugham has argued that "lawyers are the custodians of civilisations than which there can be no higher aim and nobler duty".A chronological history/critique of the legal profession and the Judiciary; from Rhodesia to Zimbabwe

No Fault Divorce: Changing Divorce Laws in Zimbabwe.

A ZLRev article on divorce laws in Zimbabwe.Prior to the enactment of the Matrimonial Causes Amendment Act No. 11 of 1987 there were two different sets of divorce laws in Zimbabwe, one applicable to monogamous marriages contracted under the general law and the other to potentially polygamous or polygamous marriages contracted in terms of customary law. Thus the dissolution of monogamous marriages contracted under the Marriage Act, Chapter 37, or under some foreign law look place in terms of Roman-Dutch common law and statute law whereas the dissolution of customary law marriages took place in accordance with customary law

The Constitutional Recognition and Popular Enjoyment of Human Rights in Zimbabwe

A ZLRev article on human rights in Zimbabwe

The Right to Information and the Regulation of Broadcasting in Zimbabwe: Towards a More Liberal Framework

A ZLRev article on the right to information in Zimbabwe from a legalistic perspective.The debate over the broadcasting legal regulatory framework in Zimbabwe falls within the general discourse on freedom of expression, information and the media. Accordingly, issues relating to the reform of the laws governing broadcasting have to be discussed within the general context of the rights to freedom of expression, access to information and freedom of the media. Within this context important constitutional and human rights imperatives arise which have to be reviewed so as to properly understand the issues which are crucial in the process of regulating broadcasting and broadcasting services. Broadcasting does not and cannot take place in a vacuum. It is not and cannot be a purposeless exercise without social ends. The essence of broadcasting includes or encompasses the obligation to inform, the right of citizens to be informed, their right to acquire knowledge and information, their right to entertainment and recreation and indeed their right to be educated. It is for this reason that broadcasting is an important social and political issue which ought to concern all those who believe in democratic government. This paper is divided into four parts of which this introduction is the first. The second part discusses the importance of free speech and freedom of information to individual self realisation and to the institution and maintenance of democratic and accountable government. The third part discusses the scope of the right to free speech within the context of international human rights instruments. The fourth part discusses the recognition and implementation of the right in Zimbabwe and also analyses the broadcasting laws within the context of the Constitution. The fifth and final part suggests recommendations to create a more liberal legal regulatory framework for broadcasting

Defending and Protecting Gender Equality and the Family Under a Decidedly Undecided Constitution in Zimbabwe

A ZLRev. article on the need to safeguard gender equality in Zimbabwe's constitutional statutes.Zimbabwe is party to virtually all international human rights instruments which oblige countries to inter alia, protect and promote the family and family life for the benefit of its members; guarantee women equality with men during marriage and at its dissolution; guarantee women equal rights and responsibilities with men in marriage and family relations; and guarantee equal rights and responsibilities between men and women regarding the entry into marriage, ownership, management and disposition of property within and without marriage. Since independence the state has sought to reform family laws with a view to granting women and children rights and protection, particularly against those traditional and customary practices which are perceived as unjustifiable. However, the approach to these issues has been uneven and sometimes inconsistent and muddled. On the other hand, social reaction, particularly from elders and traditionalists has often been sharp, aggressive and resistant. The objectives of this paper are to review, analyse and evaluate, within the framework of the country's obligations under international human rights treaties, Zimbabwe's legislative reforms which have been directed at achieving gender equality and the general protection of women and children within the family. Also evaluated are the social reactions to some of these changes which have struck at the core of traditional rights, norms and values. This paper tells the story of how Zimbabwe has grappled, even though sometimes inconsistently and incoherently, with the complex issues relating to the co-existence of not only a formal plural system of laws but also a plural and highly contested system of norms and values. Modern and Western inspired values on equality between men and women, on the rights of children have clashed with "traditional" and "customary" values on the same matters. The legislative reforms in the field of family law have thus resembled a Western dance to the sounds of traditional drums and music in what may be described as a dance trapped between the slippery slopes of modernity and quicksands of tradition and customary law

Muddling in the Quicksands of Tradition and Custom and Skating Down the Slippery Slopes of Modernity: the Reform of Marriage and Inheritance Laws in Zimbabwe

An evaluation and analysis of Zimbabwe's Marriage and Inheritance Laws from a legal perspective.In 1993 the Government of Zimbabwe published a White Paper on Marriage and Inheritance in Zimbabwe which invited debate on proposed law reforms to this area of the law. That white paper generated widespread and often heated debate. I had occasion to participate in that debate and dismissed much of the White Paper's proposals for law reform as largely an exercise in "superfluity" and "mischief making".11 categorised some of the "proposals" as superfluous because those "proposals" were in fact already the law. I wondered how the law officers of the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs could have got so much of the present state of the law so completely wrong and hence some of their recommendations to reform the law to what it already was. The other proposed reforms, which were not superfluous I argued, were mischievous since they were apparently intended to facilitate either the conversion of monogamous civil marriages into potentially polygamous ones or were designed to allow the legal recognition of the co-existence of civil law and customary law widows.2 Those aspects of the White Paper's recommendations relating to inheritance issues, which were the only ones that were not superfluous, have now been incorporated into the provisions of the Administration of Estates Amendment Act No.6 of 1997, which came into force on 1 November, 1997. In terms of section 6 the provisions of the Amendment Act shall not affect the estate of any person who died before the date of its commencement. The objective of this paper is to evaluate and analyse the new law as contained in the Administration of Estates Amendment Act within the context of existing law

Towards the Constitutional Protection of Environmental Rights in Zimbabwe

A ZLRev. article on the legally constituted rights for the protection of the environment and ecology of Zimbabwe.The increasing emphasis on environmental protection and ecological preservation, as well as Zimbabwe's crisis of development make it eminently desirable to analyse the conceptual values in which environmental law is based. It has been stressed that environmental law derives from the common interest of mankind, as does international recognition of human rights and freedom. It is thus normal that a link was established between the two as early as 1972, by the Stockholm Declaration itself which stated that: Man (sic) has the fundamental rights of freedom, equality, and adequate conditions of life, in an environment of a quality that permits a life of dignity and well being, and he bears a solemn responsibility to protect and improve the environment for present and future generations.’ Thus, "the right to environment" was proclaimed at the beginning of the "environmental era" at a worldwide level. In addition, as it is formulated, this principle includes all the essential elements of both old and new fields of international law. It is very clearly linked with human rights, civil, political (freedom, equality, dignity) economic, social and cultural rights (adequate conditions of life, well being). It also warns that everybody has a responsibility for the protection and improvement of the environment. Finally, and this is new in human rights language, it also opens a time perspective by speaking of future generations

The Constitutional Reconstruction of Zimbabwe: Much Ado About Nothing?

Zimbabwe became ah independent sovereign state on 18th April, 1980under the Lancaster House Constitution which had been negotiated and agreed upon by the Patriotic Front Alliance, the British Government and the Smith-Muzorewa Alliance. To date, Zimbabwe has been governed under that Constitution which has remained basically intact except for two major amendments effected during 1987. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the changes that have so far been made and those that are likely to be made to the Lancaster House Constitution with a view to Assessing the interests that are being protected by such changes. However, before one can analyze the changes and in whose interests they have, or will be made, it is essential to understand what constitutions arc and also what interests are protected by the Lancaster House Constitution. It is, therefore, necessary to begin by briefly explaining what a constitution is and how it comes about and its relationship with the socioeconomic order of a given country and - then proceed to briefly outline the major features of the original Lancaster House Constitution so as to ascertain the interests that it registered