DR Laura-Stella Enonchong le14@soas.ac.uk
Senior Lecturer
Constitutional identity, bijuralism and the establishment of the common law division in the Supreme Court of Cameroon
Enonchong, Laura-Stella
Authors
Abstract
This article discusses the establishment of the Common Law Division (CLD) of the Supreme Court in the context of the Anglophone Crisis in Cameroon. It argues that the problem of the common law’s unequal status in Cameroon’s bijural legal system is compounded by the feeble constitutional affirmation of bijuralism as a constitutional identity. That has a concomitant effect on the way that the common law is represented within the Supreme Court and the CLD in particular. To explore that argument, the article offers an original analysis of bijuralism as a constitutional identity constructed from the legal, political and historical evolution of bijuralism in Cameroon. It is further contended that the establishment of the CLD was a missed opportunity to address the parity of the two legal traditions. Ultimately, the article suggests that the door to further reforms is not closed. In particular, the introduction of constitutional amendments to unequivocally affirm bijuralism as a constitutional identity and to reassert the parity of the two legal traditions.
Citation
Enonchong, L.-S. (2025). Constitutional identity, bijuralism and the establishment of the common law division in the Supreme Court of Cameroon. Legal pluralism and critical social analysis, 57(1), 26-50. https://doi.org/10.1080/27706869.2025.2465134
| Journal Article Type | Article |
|---|---|
| Acceptance Date | Feb 4, 2025 |
| Online Publication Date | Feb 14, 2025 |
| Publication Date | Jan 2, 2025 |
| Deposit Date | Feb 17, 2025 |
| Publicly Available Date | Feb 17, 2025 |
| Print ISSN | 2770-6869 |
| Publisher | Taylor and Francis |
| Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
| Volume | 57 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 26-50 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1080/27706869.2025.2465134 |
| Keywords | Cameroon anglophone crisis, bijuralism, common law division, constitutional identity, Supreme Court of Cameroon |
| Publisher URL | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/27706869.2025.2465134 |
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Bijuralism, Constitutional Identity, the Supreme Court of Cameroon Article.pdf
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Licence
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
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