Indigenising Private Law: Lessons from Samoa
Date
Authors
Supervisor
Item type
Journal Article
Degree name
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Université de Montréal
Abstract
Legally pluralistic societies such as Samoa face a challenge: the legacy of colonialism, including in law-school curricula. In 2019, the National University of Samoa delivered its first Customary Adjudication programme with core topics including Legal Professional Ethics and Customary Law—a programme that I helped design and deliver. However, for the time being, indigenous law remains virtually non-existent in law-school curricula. This paper critically reviews the existing framework for the teaching of private law in Samoa and discuss how law schools could incorporate indigenous private law to a greater degree. It explores approaches adopted in the Pacific to review and reform local private law, while not pedagogical in nature, it carries potential for informing the integration of indigenous materials into the design and delivery of private- law papers. Accordingly, this paper represents a concrete contribution to the ongoing process of decolonisation in the Pacific region.Description
Source
Journal of Commonwealth Law, ISSN: 2563-6448 (Print), 4, 101-126.
DOI
Rights statement
The journal be cited as the source of the article. The article be reprinted in full. Copying is for academic or non-commercial purposes only.