Ruppel, Oliver C.; Ruppel-Schlichting, Katharina --- "The hybridity of law in Namibia and the role of community law in the Southern African Development Community (SADC)" [2017] ELECD 1597; in Nafziger, A.R. James (ed), "Comparative Law and Anthropology" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017) 85

Book Title: Comparative Law and Anthropology

Editor(s): Nafziger, A.R. James

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781781955178

Section: Chapter 6

Section Title: The hybridity of law in Namibia and the role of community law in the Southern African Development Community (SADC)

Author(s): Ruppel, Oliver C.; Ruppel-Schlichting, Katharina

Number of pages: 31

Abstract/Description:

A broad variety of elements influence the applicable sources of law and, thus, a legal system in its entirety. These influencing elements include religion, ethics, morality, society, and government, globalisation and international law. Different legal mechanisms may be applied for comparable situations. This chapter gives an overview on the hybridity of law in Namibia as one vibrant example of legal and judicial pluralism in southern Africa. Moreover, in a similar light, the chapter investigates the role and current state of acceptance of community law in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). In this context, light will first be shed on the national level before turning to the southern African regional level. The chapter aims to reflect a ‘modern approach’ to African legal architecture – modern in the sense that it does not focus on the hybridity of law on the national only but also the (sub-) regional level. In this context, the effect of supranational (that is, community) law on municipal law (and vice versa) can play a significant role that will be alluded to from an SADC perspective.