The essence vindicated? Courts and customary marriages in South Africa

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dc.contributor.authorMwambene, Lea
dc.date.accessioned2018-08-07T07:23:21Z
dc.date.available2018-08-07T07:23:21Z
dc.date.issued2017
dc.description.abstractThis article describes different approaches in which courts have determined the validity of customary marriages under the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act in order to address the historical injustices of vulnerable parties in a customary marriage. These approaches are drawn from selected cases decided after the Act came into effect and consist of two scenarios, namely, ‘judicial notice’ and ‘proof’ of customary law. These approaches produce considerably distinct results. On the one hand, where courts adopt the approach of ‘judicial notice’ and apply official customary law, the inevitable result has been the invalidation of marriages. On the other hand, if the approach has emphasised the recognition of the essence of customary law, courts have validated these marriages and protected vulnerable parties. These results may support (at least partly) the theory by various scholars that the Constitution envisaged that courts will be applying living customary law in order to fulfil their constitutional obligations.en_US
dc.description.accreditationDHET
dc.identifier.citationMwambene, L. (2017). The essence vindicated? Courts and customary marriages in South Africa. African Human Rights Law Journal (AHRLJ), 17: 35 - 54.en_US
dc.identifier.issn1609-073X
dc.identifier.urihttp://dx.doi.org/10.17159/1996-2096/2017/v17n1a2
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10566/3937
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.privacy.showsubmitterFALSE
dc.publisherPretoria University Law Pressen_US
dc.rightsThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
dc.status.ispeerreviewedTRUE
dc.subjectCustomary marriagesen_US
dc.subjectValidityen_US
dc.subjectJudicial noticeen_US
dc.subjectProof of customary lawen_US
dc.subjectLiving customary lawen_US
dc.titleThe essence vindicated? Courts and customary marriages in South Africaen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US

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