DR Laura-Stella Enonchong le14@soas.ac.uk
Senior Lecturer
Conflict Transformation Through Institutional (Re)Construction: An Examination of the Common Law Division of the Supreme Court of Cameroon
Enonchong, Laura-Stella; Eware, Ashu
Authors
Ashu Eware
Abstract
In 2017, the institutional structure of the Supreme Court of Cameroon was amended to include a Common Law Division (CLD). That was done partly to address a violent conflict that originated from wider discriminatory practices against the English-speaking minorities, the unsatisfactory application of the common law, and longstanding difficulties experienced by common law lawyers in accessing that court. This article applies conflict transformation theory to investigate the transformative potentials of the CLD, through a qualitative exploration of its organization and functioning and the common law lawyers' perception and experience of the CLD. It finds that participants were generally receptive to the CLD, despite cautious optimism in the extent to which it could effectively represent and develop the common law, due to some limitations imposed by application of the 2006Supreme Court Law. Consistent with conflict transformation theory, the findings highlight the need for the continuity of the transformation process to further refine the CLD. The findings have broader implications for the agency of courts in conflict transformation in postcolonial divided societies.
Citation
Enonchong, L.-S., & Eware, A. (2024). Conflict Transformation Through Institutional (Re)Construction: An Examination of the Common Law Division of the Supreme Court of Cameroon. African conflict and peacebuilding review, 14(1), 28-58. https://doi.org/10.2979/acp.00002
| Journal Article Type | Article |
|---|---|
| Acceptance Date | Dec 1, 2023 |
| Publication Date | Jun 6, 2024 |
| Deposit Date | Jan 13, 2024 |
| Publicly Available Date | Jun 7, 2124 |
| Journal | African Conflict and Peacebuilding Review |
| Print ISSN | 2156-695X |
| Electronic ISSN | 2156-7263 |
| Publisher | Indiana University Press |
| Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 28-58 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.2979/acp.00002 |
Files
This file is under embargo until Jun 7, 2124 due to copyright reasons.
Contact outputs@soas.ac.uk to request a copy for personal use.
You might also like
Crise anglophone au Cameroun: comment le tribunal de Common law offre une lueur d'espoir
(2022)
Digital Artefact
Cameroon’s Anglophone crisis: how the common law court offers a ray of hope
(2022)
Digital Artefact
Downloadable Citations
About SOAS Research Online
Administrator e-mail: outputs@soas.ac.uk
This application uses the following open-source libraries:
SheetJS Community Edition
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
PDF.js
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
Font Awesome
SIL OFL 1.1 (http://scripts.sil.org/OFL)
MIT License (http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.html)
CC BY 3.0 ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
Powered by Worktribe © 2025
Advanced Search