(Re)Constructing Judicial Institutions for Conflict Transformation: The Common Law Division of the Supreme Court of Cameroon in Perspective

This project investigates the role of the newly established Common Law Division (CLD) in the Supreme Court of Cameroon in engineering positive social change. The CLD was created in 2017, in response to a socio-political conflict which began in 2016 and subsequently degenerated into armed conflict. These events were triggered by concerns relating to the marginalisation of the English Common Law practised by Cameroon’s English-speaking minorities. The government’s stated objective was to provide a solution to the conflict by creating the CLD to accommodate the Common Law at the level of the Supreme Court, in areas where national laws had not been harmonised. The project will investigate the extent to which the CLD’s creation addresses the fundamental concerns relating to the marginalisation of the Common Law in Cameroon’s bi-jural legal system. It will contribute new empirical evidence on the agency of institutional (re)construction on conflict transformation in divided societies.

Dr Laura-Stella Enonchong, De Montfort University; Mr Ashu Eware, National School of Administration and Magistracy (Ministry of Justice, Cameroon)