Editor's Notes
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/j.1099-162X.1960.tb00160.x |
| Published date | 01 April 1960 |
| Date | 01 April 1960 |
JOURNAL
OF
AFRICAN
ADMINISTRATION
Volume
XII·
Number
2 • April
1960
Editor's Notes
THE
London
conference on
the
Future
of
Law
in Africa,
which
is noted on .
page
107, is
of
particular
interest.
It
has
been
said
with
truth
that
the
adminis-
tration
of
justice
through
Native
Courts
and
by Chiefs was one
of
the
most
successful features of indirect administration.
This
was to be expected
where
those
who
traditionally
maintained
law
and
order
and
settled disputes were
asked to continue to do so.
It
was
much
more
in their line
than
providing
local
government
services
or
enforcing sanitary or
agricultural
byelaws.
But
in
the
sphere
of
the
administration
of
justice, as in all
other
spheres, times
and
conditions
are
changing,
and
it is for consideration
whether
enough
is
done
in
some territories to guide
and
help to mould
the
native
court
system to
meet
present conditions.
Most
territories have
appointed
Native Courts or
Judicial
Advisers who
have
done
much
useful educative work,
but
there
may
sometimes
be too
much
of
atendency to
regard
the
administration
of
justice
at
the
local
level as
requiring
less
attention
than,
say, local
government
services or economic
development.
If
the
conference has succeeded in
drawing
attention
to
the
vital
importance
of
supervising, educating
and
helping those courts which
are
closest
to the people it will
have
achieved something
of
great
value,
apart
from
the
other
important
matters
which it discussed.
It
was most encouraging to see
such agalaxy
of
legal
talent
concerning itself
with
these matters
which
so
closely affect
the
lives
of
so
many.
III ••• •
The
Local
Government
course initiated in 1959
and
based
at
Oxford has
drawn
nominations from fifteen territories
and
the
third
course starting in
March
1960 will, it is hoped,
have
representatives from
India
and
Malaya.
This
course, while it has no claim to originality in
many
ways, following as
it does
upon
the
Wraith
courses for West Africa
and
the
British Council
courses for
East
Africa, has widened
the
field
of
training
and
given
much
more
point
to
the
rather
vague
'attachment'
of
the
past.
Under
the
direction
of
an
enthusiastic, widely travelled
and
experienced resident
tutor,
and
with
the
generous co-operation of local authorities, it offers a blend of theory
and
prac-
tice
throughout.
An
indication
that
the
course is
not
without
merit
is given by a request from
one territory, after sending a
'guinea
pig', for eleven places to be reserved in
1961.
* * ** *
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