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Reevaluating African Women's Inheritance Rights In Indigenous Customary Law And Statutory National Law, Mallory Matheson, Ashleigh Heinze
Reevaluating African Women's Inheritance Rights In Indigenous Customary Law And Statutory National Law, Mallory Matheson, Ashleigh Heinze
Brigham Young University Prelaw Review
When indigenous customary law infringes upon women’s rights in patriarchal societies, how can national legal systems ensure maximum justice for women while respecting regional legal and cultural sovereignty? Which entities, if any, hold the responsibility and the jurisdiction to enforce compliance with statutory national law? In exploring these questions, we examine the tension between indigenous customary law and statutory national law on women’s inheritance rights in Botswana, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. We argue that grassroots efforts to induce gender-based societal change must develop in tandem with institutional and legal reformation, as gender-egalitarian sociocultural foundations will best incentivize compliance with national law …