Full Description
The book focuses on the ownership and distribution of marital property upon the dissolution of marriages in Africa. In each of the 16 African countries, the laws on the subject are drawn from different systems of law, whether customary, state law or religious law, and are enmeshed in a complex scheme of legal pluralism. The laws developed by the various internal systems of law have often been unfair, as women seem to have been discriminated against and have little by way of property rights, both in and out of marriages. Scholars researching African family law have conducted individual studies of marital property rights at the state level. Consequently, there is no comparative text that explains how laws in Africa regulate property rights in the context of marriage and divorce. This book seeks to fill this gap by highlighting shared themes such as spousal property classification, legal pluralism, marriage contracts, irregular unions, and human rights, and offering a comparative perspective on fairness and justice in marital property distribution.
The book defines marital property as understood in different legal contexts and evaluates the legal framework governing the rights that spouses have in marital property during the subsistence of the marriage and on divorce. The book also assesses the impact of international and domestic human rights law on each country's legal framework for the ownership and distribution of marital property upon divorce, and offers recommendations for improving these frameworks.
Contents
Introduction: Legal Pluralism and Spousal Property Rights in Africa.- Part I: Common Law Systems: Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia.- Spousal Property Rights in Ghana.- Contemporary Matrimonial Property Law in Kenya: An Exposition of Substantive Equality.- The Protection of Women's Property Rights on Dissolution of Marriage in Malawi.- Settlement of Matrimonial Property upon Divorce in Nigeria: The Rights of Spouses, Challenges and Urgent Need for Reforms.- Marital Property Rights During and After the Dissolution of Marriage in Tanzania.- Marital Property Settlement after the Dissolution of Marriages in Nigeria and Uganda: A Comparative Appraisal.- Ownership of Marital Property in Zambia.- Part II: Civil Law Traditions: Côte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Morocco.- Ivorian Matrimonial Property Law Reform: Between Resurgence And Emergence.- Marital Property Division Under the Ethiopian Family Law.- An Economic Interpretation of Morocco's New Family Code of 2004: Divorce and Marital Property.- Part III: Bijural System: Cameroon.- The Resolution of Disputes over Ownership of Marital Property Under Anglophone Cameroonian Law.- Part IV: Mixed Legal Systems: eSwatini, Mauritius, Seychelles, South Africa, Zimbabwe.- Proprietary Consequences of Marriage in eSwatini.- An Overview of Matrimonial Property Rights in Mauritius.- Marital Property in Seychelles.- A Critical Analysis and Overview of the South African Legal Framework on Matrimonial Property Rights and Divorce.- A Double-Edged Sword: Zimbabwe's New Marriage Act and The Implications for The Matrimonial Rights of Women In Unregistered Customary Marriages.
