UPDATE: Sources of Online
Legal Information for African Countries
By Jane
Williams
Jane Williams is Foreign, Comparative and
International Law Librarian at Albert E. Jenner, Jr. Memorial Law Library. She
holds a JD & MSLS from the Wayne State University (Detroit).
Published
March/April 2009
See the Archive Version!
Table of Contents
1.
Introduction
2.
Secondary Sources
2.1 News Sources
2.2 Indexes and Catalogs
3.
Primary Sources
3.1 Regional Collections
3.2 Subject Collections
3.3 Resources by Country
4.
Regional Organizations
1. Introduction
The
purpose of this article is to identify online resources for locating the legal
materials of African states. It will first identify meta-sites useful both for
background information and links to legal information. The next part will
identify secondary sources which can help locate sources and issues. The third
section will list primary sources grouped by region, topic, and country. The
final part will list the web sites of some African regional organizations.
Africa
has about fifty four states plus six dependent territories. The post-colonial
period, through much of the continent, has been characterized by political
instability, civil strife, war, economic underdevelopment, and weak legal
systems. Thus, only a few African countries have a strong history of
publishing and disseminating legal materials. A useful source for determining
what legislative materials are published for each jurisdiction is the Reynolds
and Flores[1] treatise. It is also available as an online subscription.
In
the past decade there has been a trend in some countries toward better
governance and transparency. Increasing numbers of governments have web sites
and/or parliamentary sites, some of which provide news, government reports, and
other documents. Meta sites which include links to governments’ web sites,
country information, and legal information include the following:
Several
projects are underway which should increase access to African legal materials.
These include the following:
- JurisAfrica is an online law reporting
service owned by African Law Reporter Online. It intends to publish
constitutions, judgments of the superior courts, legislation and articles.
Currently there are only a few items available, most of which relate to
land law.
2. Secondary Sources
Given
that there are a limited number of comprehensive databases or internet sites
for the legal materials of African countries, and that few law libraries have complete
collections, secondary materials are important for identifying issues, recent developments,
and documents. These include news sources, indexes and library and institute
catalogues, journals, and papers.
2.1 News Sources
- AllAfrica.com aggregates news sources from African
organizations and elsewhere. A basic version with a topical search
function is freely available. By subscribing, one has access to an
archive going back to 1996 and the ability to search by key word,
category, publisher, and date.
- Jurist from the University of Pittsburg provides country-by-country
legal news for about a dozen African countries.
- The BBC News Africa service
is another good source for current information. This service also
includes country profiles with country overviews, basic facts and
political information, and list of newspapers and other media.
- The African Law Firm Network,
Lex Africa, provides legal news and
informational pieces about commercial matters.
2.2 Indexes and Catalogues
- General online indexes with
references to articles relating to legal issues include the two databases
from AfricaBib: Bibliography of Africana
Periodical Literature and African Women’s Bibliographic Databases. Both
can be searched by geographic region, periodical, subject, author, title,
keyword, and date. A few articles link to full text.
- The Quarterly Index of African
Periodical Literature from the Library of Congress is another
general Africana index which includes references to law-related articles.
- The African Studies Centre (Leiden) is an
independent institute which researches social science issues relating to
Africa. Its library catalogue identifies monographs, articles, and book
chapters, some of which are related to law. The web site also includes
the full text of working papers and other publications.
3. Primary Sources
One
can find online legal materials for African countries in fee-based databases,
within subject or regional collections, and on various country specific sites.
Few of the internet sites are comprehensive and it can sometimes be difficult
to determine the currency of the information.
3.1 Regional Collections
- L’Association des Cours Constitutionnelles ayant en
Partage l’Usage Français (ACCPUF) provides laws relating to
constitutional institutions, some jurisprudence, and other material from
its member states.
- The Centre for Human
Rights, University of Pretoria, has a collection of legislation
from southern and eastern Africa which includes children’s rights,
customary practices, domestic violence, employment, equality and
non-discrimination, HIV, property rights, and right to health care.
- Droit-Afrique.com is a web portal to
business law in French-speaking Africa. It includes commercial, customs,
investment, employment, social security, and tax laws as well as materials
from regional organizations.
- The International Documentation Network on the Great
African Lakes Region is an interesting collection of materials
from a variety of governmental and nongovernmental sources. Included are
Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania,
and Uganda. A search may locate laws and decrees although it is somewhat
difficult to determine what material is included. Note too that if
French, not English, is one of the official languages of a country a
search in French will generate more results for primary legal materials for
that country.
- IslamCatalogue--Islaw,
from the University of Leipzig, provides links to Islamic law and the law
of countries with high Muslim populations, including about fourteen
African states.
- Investir en zone franc was developed in 1998 by
the Commission de l’Union Économique et Monétaire Ouest Africaine (UEMOA)
and the Secrétariat Exécutif de la Communauté Économique et Monétaire de l’Afrique
Centrale (CEMAC). UEMOA has eight members: Benin,
Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo.
CEMAC has six: Cameroon, Congo (Brazzaville), Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, the
Central African Republic, and Chad. The individual country sites include
links to various full texts or summaries of codes and pieces of
legislation. In addition, some national legislation which implements CEMAC
decisions is published in Les Journaux Officiels.
- Legis-Palop is a project designed to
collect the legislation and jurisprudence of the five Portuguese speaking
countries: Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, and Sao Tome
& Principe.
- Réseau d’information pour
le développement durable en Afrique centrale provides various
environmental laws including those relating to forests, water, mines, and
energy for Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of
Congo, and Gabon.
- The Trade Law Centre for Southern Africa
provides selected legislation of Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique,
Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
3.2 Subject Collections
Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources
The
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations provides three
databases:
- FAOLex is an up to date database of
national laws and regulations relating to food, agriculture, and natural
resources. It includes most African countries and provides links to full
text documents.
- FishLex provides laws and regulations on coastal
state requirements for foreign fishing.
- WaterLex has international agreements on
water resources.
Business Law
- The Doing Business Law Library from
the World Bank provides laws and regulations relating to business. Topics
included are banking and credit laws, bankruptcy and collateral laws,
civil codes, civil procedure codes, commercial and company laws,
constitutions, labor laws, land and building laws, security laws, tax
laws, and trade laws. One can search by economy (the name of a state) or
topic.
Competition Law
Constitutions
Copyright, Patents, and Trademarks
- UNESCO’s Collection of
Copyright Laws includes the laws of about twenty African
countries.
- The Collection of Laws for Electronic Access
from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) provides texts
for copyright, trademarks and patent legislation in English, French, and Spanish.
WIPO’s collection of copyright legislation overlaps somewhat with the
UNESCO collection but it also includes about a dozen countries not included
in the UNESCO database.
Criminal Law
Drugs
- The United Nations Office on
Drugs and Crime provides a Legal Library of
money laundering and drug legislation which countries have passed to
implement international drug conventions.
Health Law
Humanitarian Law
- The International Committee
of the Red Cross provides two databases on international
humanitarian law:
- The Treaty Databases includes
the four Geneva Conventions, their protocols and ratification
information.
- The National Implementation
Database has two parts. The first provides legislation relating to
humanitarian law, including relevant penal provisions and laws relating
to war crimes and the military. The second part provides related case
law.
Investment and Trade
- FDI.net, from the Multilateral Investment
Guarantee Agency, includes treaties, laws and regulations for a few
African countries which are relevant to investors, including those
relating to trade, foreign investment, and taxes. It also provides
business law overviews for most countries.
Labor Law
- The International Labour
Organization (ILO) database NATLEX
provides labor laws as well as laws on other subjects such as economic and
social policy, free trade, and criminal law. Some of the sites provide
full text in English, Spanish or French while others provide only citations.
Non-Profit Law
- The International Center for Not-for-Profit Law provides the
text of laws governing various issues related to non-governmental organizations,
including about twenty two African countries. One must register to use
the site but otherwise the documents are freely available.
Occupational Safety and Health
Refugees
- RefWorld Legal Collection
is a database from the UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees which provides
the full text of national and international laws relevant to assessing
asylum claims. It also includes laws on citizenship, nationality,
statelessness, human rights, and related issues.
Tax and Commercial Law
3.3 Resources by Country
Algeria
Collections
- Droit Algerie is a web portal to Algerian
law from the Ministry of Justice. It can be viewed in French or Arabic.
The site provides access to the constitution, codes, legislation and
treaties to which Algeria is a party. Supreme Court judgments are
available in Arabic only.
- Lex Algeria, the Algerian law portal,
includes selected codes relating to public and private law as well as links
to jurisprudence from the Conseil Constitutionnel from 1989 and the
Conseil d’Etat from 1999. Some decisions are in English, but the French
and Arabic versions are more comprehensive.
- The National Assembly (Assemblée
Populaire Nationale) site contains legislation adopted in the last three
sessions.
Law
and Legislation.
Research Guide
Angola
Law and Legislation
- The Assembleia Nacional web site provides a list of sessions laws from 1992 through
2001 with a few links to full text documents.
- The government portal site provides a searchable
database of legislation in force. Each government ministry web site also
includes links to legislation within its area of responsibility.
Research
Guide
Benin
Law
and Legislation
- Afrikinfo.com apparently intends to add legislative and
other documents, but at the time of this writing there is no full text.
- The Assemblée Nationale web site includes a
few acts from 1999 and 2000, most of which appear to concern the
implementation of international and other agreements.
- The Bénin government web site provides the
Code des Investissments and the Code de l’Hygiène Publique.
Jurisprudence
Botswana
Law
and Legislation
Jurisprudence
- SAFLII database includes selected
decisions from the High Court of Botswana (2006- ), the Appeal Court of
Botswana (1981- ), and the Industrial Court (2004- ).
Research
Guide
Burkina Faso
Law
and Legislation
- Banque de Données Juridiques du Burkina
provides Le Journal Officiel from 1993. It includes laws,
ordinances, decrees, decisions, notices and other official government
communications and is searchable by key word, type of material and body
issuing the document, and citation to the JO. The site also provides
several codes (elections, civil procedure, mining, insurance, and labor).
- The Premier Ministère web site includes a list
of the web sites of other government ministries. Several of these provide
legislation relating to their area of responsibility.
Jurisprudence
- JuriBurkina provides selected judgments
from the Cour de Cassation, Conseil Constitutionnel, Conseil d’Etat, Cour
d’appel de Bobo Dioulasso, Tribunal du Travail de Ouagadougou, Tribunal de
Travail de Bobo Dioulasso and Tribunal de Grande Instance de Bobo Dioulasso.
Research
Guide
Burundi
Law
and Legislation
Research
Guide
Cameroon
Law
and Legislation
- CamLaw is an online legal research
initiative provided by the Cameroon Law Society. The site currently
provides the Criminal Procedure Code and the Labour Code. The French
version also includes the tax code.
- The Prime Minister’s Office web site provides
a searchable collection of laws, ordinances, decrees, orders and
decisions. The site can be viewed in French or English but some material
is only available in French.
Research
Guide
Cape Verde
Jurisprudence
Central African Republic
Law
and Legislation
- Bibliotheque Virtuelle
provides the text of several codes, including mining, petroleum, forests,
and investment with others under construction.
Chad
Collections
- CEFOD (Centre d’etude de formation pour le développement)
provides various legal materials including selected codes and other
legislation. Revue juridique
tchadienne, which reports some jurisprudence and legislation, is also
linked from the site.
Law
and Legislation
Jurisprudence
- Droit francophone also has
selected decisions from the Cour d’appel (1969-1996) and a few from the
Tribunal du travail.
Research
guide
Congo (Brazzaville)
Law
and Legislation
- The official web site includes an
investment section which provides links to the Code d’investissement and
Code Forestier.
Congo (Democratic Republic)
Database
Law and Legislation
Research
Guide
Djibouti
Law
and Legislation
- Le Journal Officiel, available from
1996, includes laws, presidential and ministerial ordinances, decrees and
orders, announcements and legal orders. It can be searched by date,
subject index, and type of legal document.
- Droit francophone has a large
collection of laws for the period 1971-2003.
Egypt
Law
and Legislation
- The government web portal has several
laws in English translation, including Environment Law, Law of Investment
Guarantees and Incentives, Labour Law, General Sales Tax, and Central
Securities Depository and Registry Law. Other laws are in Arabic.
Research Guide
Gabon
Law
and Legislation
Research Guide
Gambia
Law and Legislation
· The Central Bank of the Gambia links
to the Financial Institutions Act (2003), the Insurance Act (2003), the Money
Laundering Act (2003), and the Return of Fees and Charges Levied by Banks
(2003) and to other materials relating to banking regulation.
· The Gambia Divestiture Agency provides the Gambia
Divestiture Act 2001 and the Gambia Public Utilities Regulatory Act.
· The Gambia Investments and Free Zones Agency includes the Gambia
Investment Promotion Act, Free Zones Act 2001 and other laws relevant to
business such as environmental and tax laws.
Ghana
Subscription
database
- The Ghana Law Database, provided by
DataCenta Ltd, includes laws of the Fourth Republic (1992- ), the
Consolidated Statutes of Ghana, business and financial laws, all volumes
of the Ghana Law Reports, four law journals, and legal news. The Ghana
Law Reports, however, have not been published since 1994.
Legislation
Jurisprudence
Research
Guide
Guinea
Law
and Legislation
Research
Guide
Ivory Coast
Law
and Legislation
Kenya
Databases
- Kenya Law Reports, from the National
Council for Law Reporting, provides an up to date edition of the Laws of
Kenya in a searchable database. Cases from the High Court and Court of
Appeal (1980- ) are also searchable. Kenya Law Reports also includes the
Kenya Gazette from 2003, the 2006 Hansard and other material. As of 2009
the material was freely available.
Subscription Database
- Africa Law Reports from LawAfrica include judgments from Kenya’s
courts.
Research
Guide
Lesotho
Law
and Legislation
Research
Guide
Liberia
Law and Legislation
Research
Guide
Other
- Liberian Law at Cornell
includes a digitized collection of historical statues, a few Supreme Court
decisions relating to election law, and an index to the first 27 volumes
of the Liberian law Reports.
Libya
Legislation
Jurisprudence
Research
Guide
Madagascar
Law
and Legislation
Jurisprudence
Malawi
Law
and Legislation
- The Malawi SDNP web site, a UNDP supported
government program, links to legislation relating to communications, the
environment, employment, local government, and workers compensation.
- The Reserve Bank of Malawi
web site links to banking and financial legislation.
Jurisprudence
- Decisions of the Industrial
Relations Court (2000-2003) are available from CommonLII
Research
Guide
Mali
Law
and Legislation
- As part of PRODEJ (Programme Décennal de Développement
de la Justice) the Ministry of Justice provides the text of major codes,
other recently adopted legislation, and other legal texts.
- Droit francophone has selected legislation
from 1959-2000.
- Secretáriat Général du Gouvernement, the
government department responsible for publishing laws in Mali, provides
legislation from 1994-2001 plus a few items from 2006.
Research
Guide
Mauritania
Law
and Legislation
- GLIN provides
the text of over five hundred laws, decrees and ministerial orders from
1963.
- L’Autorité de Régulation
web site has laws relating to the postal service and
telecommunications and ministerial decrees and decisions.
- LegiMauritanie from
NTIPO has selected legislation from the Journal Officiel for 1990-2001 and
2005.
Mauritius
Law
and Legislation
Jurisprudence
- The Supreme Court
includes selected civil and criminal judgments from the Intermediate Court
(2004- ), the District Court (2005- ), and the Industrial Court (2004- ).
CommonLII
provides a search engine for these decisions.
Morocco
Law
and Legislation
Research
Guide
Mozambique
Subscription
database
- Atenia provides a subscription service
to series one of the Boletim da
República de Moçambique from June 1975 to date.
Law
and Legislation
- Banco de Moçambique
provides banking laws, decrees, and other legislation.
- GLIN has English summaries of primary and secondary
legislation from 1975 with full text in Portuguese of most legislation
from 1996 to the present.
- The government portal site provides links to
legislation organized by sector.
- LexMozambique consists of the Boletim da República (1975-2004). The search engine
allows searching by type of document, name, issuing body and/or subject or
one can browse by date and issue. Using the site requires registration
but as of now downloading the documents is free.
Namibia
Subscription
database
- Juta provides subscription services to the
current consolidation of statutes and to the Namibian Law Reports for
decisions of all superior courts since independence in 1990.
Law
and Legislation
- The Parliament website includes selected
acts for 1990-1992 and 2001 to the present, bills from the current
Parliament, and other legislative materials.
- The government web site ministry index has
links to offices, agencies, and ministries, some of which provide legislation
relating to their area of authority. Thus far those with some legislation
on their sites include the Ministry of Labour, Ministry of Mines and
Energy, and the Ministry of Trade and Industry,
- CommonLII provides some laws from
1991-1992, 1995, and 2002-2005.
Jurisprudence
Research
Guide
Niger
Collection
- JuriNiger has
a few pieces of legislation, including the penal code and a selection of
jurisprudence.
Jurisprudence
Nigeria
Collection
- Nigeria Law provides federal laws still in
force and the Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (2000), a list of laws
passed from 1990 to 2000 that are still in force as of 2000, and
procedural rules for the various courts. It also includes decisions from
the Nigerian Law Reports and other judgments.
Law and Legislation
Research
Guide
Rwanda
Law
and Legislation
- The Ministry of Justice provides the Laws
and Codes of Rwanda in English and French. These are organized into five
volumes corresponding to the following broad subject areas: constitutional
law, political institutions, treaties and international conventions;
administrative law; judicial and criminal law; economic and financial law;
and civil and social law.
- The Prime Minister’s web site provides
the Official Gazette (Journal Officiel) from 2004 in English, French, and Kinyarwanda.
- The Ministry of Local Government, Community
Development and Social Affairs includes laws relating to
decentralization.
- The National Bank of Rwanda links to the Banking Act and
foreign exchange regulations.
Jurisprudence
- The Supreme Court web site provides decisions
for 2005 and 2006 in Kinyarwanda with a case table in French.
Special
Tribunal
Research Guide
Sao Tome and Principe
Legislation
- The Diário da República electronic
edition is available from 2000. One can browse by issue and date or
search by key word or citation.
- juriStep provides the text of labor,
petroleum, and industrial property laws and summaries of other
legislation.
- The Parliament web site includes some
legislation arranged by topic.
Senegal
Legislation
Jurisprudence
- ACCPUF (Association des Cours Constitutionnelles ayant en
Partage l’Usage du Français) includes decisions from
the Conseil constitutionnel for the period 1993-2005.
Theses are contained in a single PDF document.
- Droit Francophone
has selected Cour de Cassation decisions from 1992-1998.
Seychelles
Legislation
Sierra Leone
Legislation
Special
Tribunal
Research Guide
South Africa
Subscription
databases
- Juta has several internet and CD-ROM
products which provide comprehensive access to both government and
provincial legal materials.
- LexisNexis Butterworths South Africa is
another major provider of South African legal materials.
- Sabinet provides full text access to
government and provincial gazettes and parliamentary bills.
Law
and Legislation
- The Parliament of South
Africa provides the full text of laws from 1993 and bills from
1998. The Parliament site also provides links to the provincial
parliaments, some of which have legislation online.
- Polity: Policy and Law News Online is
a privately run site which provides acts from 1993, bills from 1993, other
materials such as policy documents, reports, notices and regulations, and
speeches.
- The official web site of the South African government also
provides links to laws, bills, regulations, parliamentary documents, and
reports. It also provides links to provincial documents such as bills,
acts, reports, policies, and publications.
Jurisprudence
Research
guide
Sudan
Law and Legislation
- The Sudan.net web portal provides selected laws including the
Constitutional Court Act 1998, the Constitutional and Administrative Law
Act 1998, the Political Parties Act 1998, the Labour Act 1997, and the
Khartoum Public Order Act 1998.
Research Guide
Swaziland
Legislation
Research Guide
Tanzania
Subscription
databases
- Juta provides the Tanzania Law Reports
(1983-1997).
- Law Africa Law Reports from LawAfrica includes judgments from
Tanzania’s courts.
Law
and Legislation
- POLIS (Parliamentary On-Line
Information System on the Parliament web site provides a
searchable database of laws from 1962 to the present. The Parliament site
also provides current bills and their status. Hansards for the current
Parliament are available in Kiswahili.
- The Tanzania Revenue Authority provides links
to the Income Tax Act, Value Added Tax Act and other tax legislation.
Jurisprudence
- SAFLII contains the Court of Appeal
(2003-2006) and High Court (2006- ).
Research Guide
Togo
Law
and Legislation
- Togoforum provides links to the Code
penál Togolais, Code de procédure pénale, and Code de procédure civile. (Click on the societété tab.)
Tunisia
Law
and Legislation
- Juriste Tunisie is a large French language
database arranged by subject which provides codes, laws and decrees
related both to public and private law.
- GLIN provides
over one hundred law and decrees from 1995-2005 most of which are
published in Arabic with English summaries.
- The full text of laws and
regulations relating to financial markets is available on the Bourse de Tunis web site.
Research
Guide
Uganda
Subscription
database
- Africa Law Reports from LawAfrica include judgments from Uganda’s
courts.
- Uganda Online Law Library
is a subscription service providing access to laws, statutory
instruments, and judicial decisions. A few items are free including
selected legislation, subsidiary legislation, a cause list, directory
information and a few judgments.
Collection
- The Uganda Legal Information Institute provides
legislation as consolidated in 2000 and selected decisions for the
following courts: Commercial Court (2000- ), Constitutional Court (1997-
), Court of Appeal (1997- ), High Court (1970-1975; 1997- ) and Supreme
Court (1997- ).
Law
and Legislation
Jurisprudence
- The Courts of Judicature provide
judgments from the Supreme Court for 2005 and 2006.
- SAFLII also provides selected decisions
from the courts included in the Uganda Online Law library collection.
Research Guide
Zambia
Subscription
database
- Juta provides the Zambia Law Reports
(1963-1997).
Collections
- Zambia Legal Information Institute from
the University of Zambia Law School provides selected acts; decisions
from the Supreme Court, High Court, Industrial Relations Court, and Lands
Courts; and rulings from the Revenue Tribunal. As of early 2009 the
database was unavailable but the information can be accessed via SAFLII Zambia.
Law
and Legislation
- Zambia Parliament provides the 26 volume
Laws of Zambia, a 1996 compilation of all laws passed since independence.
It also includes recent acts, and debates
and proceedings of recent sessions of Parliament.
- The Annual Review of
Population Law includes various laws relating to population and
family issues.
Zimbabwe
Subscription
database
- Juta provides a subscription service to
the statutes of Zimbabwe (revised edition 1996) and case law.
Law and Legislation
Jurisprudence
- SAFLii provides Supreme Court and High
Court decisions for 2002--
Research Guide
4. Web Sites of Regional
Organizations
: 
