Access to Legal Information Books and eBooks on the Human Right of Access to Law

The Concept of Ascertainment of Customary Law (Indigenous Customary Law)

Copyright © 2021 By Dr. Leesi Ebenezer Mitee, PhD in International Human Rights Law, Legal Information Technology (Legal Informatics), Indigenous Customary Law and Indigenous Rights

There is no universally acceptable definition of indigenous customary law, but it rightly refers to ‘the laws, practices and customs of indigenous and local communities which are an intrinsic and central part of the way of life of these communities.’[1]

One strange aspect of indigenous customary law is its numerous names, which include simply customary law, common law, folk law, indigenous law, informal law, living law, primitive law, traditional law, unwritten law, unofficial law, native law, and tribal law.[2] The term ‘indigenous customary law’ is preferred in this book (and recommended) because it clearly distinguishes it from customary international law that is also simply referred to as ‘customary law’. Another intriguing aspect is that different categories of professionals lay claim to expertise in it, e.g. lawyers, folklorists, classicists, anthropologists, historians, sociologists, and philosophers.[3]

These are excerpts from the book, The New Human Rights-Based Huricompatisation Model of Ascertainment of Indigenous Customary Law: Strategies for Adequate Local and Global Public Access, Volume 2 of the Human Right of Free Access to Public Legal Information Book Series (Publisher: Koinonia Legal Research and Book Publishing, Tilburg, The Netherlands 2021) Dr. Leesi Ebenezer Mitee.

[1] Patricia Adjei, ‘What Place for Customary Law in Protecting Traditional Knowledge?’ (World Intellectual Property Organization, August 2010), <https://www.wipo.int/wipo_magazine/en/2010/04/article_0007.html> accessed 20 February 2021.

[2] Alison Dundes Renteln and Alan Dundes (eds), Folk Law: Essays in the Theory and Practice of Lex Non Scripta, Volume 1 (University of Wisconsin Press 1994) xiii; A Weis Bentzon, ‘Negotiated Law: The Use and Study of Law Data in International Development Research’ (1994) Roskilde University International Development Studies Occasional Paper No. 13 92, 97 <https://rossy.ruc.dk/index.php/ocpa/article/view/4158> accessed 20 February 2021.

[3] Alison Dundes Renteln and Alan Dundes (eds), Folk Law: Essays in the Theory and Practice of Lex Non Scripta, Volume 1 (University of Wisconsin Press 1994) xiii.