Litigate to improve popularity?
This case related to a short-lived government tax on mobile money deposits. As Judge Ssekaana Musa explained, however, the issue involved had been sorted out well before the matter was argued, and the disputed provision withdrawn. So, what was the point in the...
“Mind boggling” to resolve status of Swazi industrial courts
The Swazi courts have been battling to resolve the question of where the judges of the industrial court and the industrial court of appeal fit into the court hierarchy. In a long, complex and technical decision, that country’s highest court has laid down the law: the...
East African Law Society in plan to ease serious tensions between Rwanda, Uganda
The 17 000-strong East African Law Society has this week thrown its weight behind efforts to reduce growing antagonism between Rwanda and Uganda. Under its new president, Willy Rubeya, the society has offered to help with mediation, so that the border between the...
Liberia’s “tardiness” over money-laundering investigations condemned by West African regional court
Judges of the West African regional court have joined the fight against money laundering. They have delivered a major new decision permitting the Liberian government’s continued freezing of an account. Vast sums have been moving in and out of this account even though...
Legal tree grows from mustard seed of judicial review
Over a dry decision involving judicial review a judge introduces the shade of a Biblical mustard tree High Court, Kenya R v St Joseph’s School Rapogi Dealing with the development of judicial review, Judge Antony Mrima wrote that the limits of judicial review were...
Eviction from communal land – only chiefs or traditional authority may do so, says court
A small-scale farmer in the far north of Namibia wanted to evict his cousin from the same piece of land where he was working the land because the cousin was ignoring conditions aimed at protecting the highly-sensitive veld. But Judge Shafimana Ueitele found that the...
Shock “advice” by international court on another forgotten African colony
For tourists and South African investors, Mauritius is often seen as a quiet paradise, politically stable and a model of both democracy and humane economic development. Now, thanks to a new advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice, Mauritius –...
A bitter pill
Patients who lost money by investing in their doctor’s financial scheme will not get justice from the health professions council; at this stage at least, the case is beyond its jurisdiction Suppose a doctor were to give financial advice to patients, suggesting that...
Appeal court throws out one-sided racism case
Allegations of apartheid-style discrimination made by a group of doctors against an internationally-linked medical research institute have been questioned by Kenya’s court of appeal. The court overturned an earlier decision by the high court that found the Kenya...
Trial courts told to stop “cavalier” use of legal terms
Who would have thought that judges needed to be warned to watch their language! Supreme Court, Zambia Banda v Attorney General Some months before their contracts came to an end, the contracts of the two appellants were terminated. The trial court found these...