Normative authority of non-state laws within legal and institutional pluralism in Nigeria

ABSTRACT

State laws purport to exercise dominion, notwithstanding people’s preferences for other normative orderings. In Nigeria, an example of this claim is the Limitation of Dowry Law, which purports to regulate the payment of bridewealth. However, the effectiveness of this law is so poor that it is practically a zombie law. So, to what extent do non-state laws wield normative authority in the context of legal and institutional pluralism in South-East Nigeria? Using a needs-based approach and field data collected in 2016, this paper argues that the Dowry Law demonstrates how people are not impressed with policies that purport to regulate their lives without adequate sensitivity to the lived realities that influence their social choices. It further argues that the effectiveness of legal pluralism is dependent on the interaction of the values of indigenous law with the cultural autonomy and economic needs of people who observe non-state laws.

KEYWORDS:

• Legal pluralism
• non-state law
• normative authority
• bridewealth
• development

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Dr Anthony Diala for his comments on the first draft of this paper as well as the anonymous reviewers for their insightful recommendations.

Disclosure statement:

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors

Note on contributor

Jane Diala is a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Law and Society, University of Cape Town, South Africa.

Notes

1 This framework was articulated in J. C. Diala 2019.

2 Other laws in this category are bigamy, burial laws, and the anti-caste discrimination.

3 See preamble to the Limitation of Dowry Law, cap 76, 1963.

4 Umunna here means Kinsmen usually consisting of the male members of both nuclear and extended family.

5 By exclusion I mean that couples especially the bride are not allowed to be present during the negotiation and payment of bridewealth

6 This is mainly an association of the first daughters in the kindred.

7 See also Howard 1983, 467.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University Research Committee, University of Cape Town [Grant ID 1468262].