Kenneth Brown

Indigenous Forums: Laughed Out of Court?

Kenneth Brown is a doctoral candidate at NTU researching in the field of customary law in Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. He worked for some years in the Solomon Islands as a magistrate and Public Solicitor. A year ago in this journal I looked at the myriad problems involved in granting recognition to customary law in any future constitution for the Northern Territory. These problems are not limited to the legal complexities. There is political hostility to any formal acknowledgement of customary law from a wide constituency in the Territory. The same edition of the journal carried a thought provoking contribution from Stephen Gray discussing proposed tentative moves towards permitting Indigenous methods of dispute resolution and policing in which he looked at several agencies involved in developing some meagre measure of autonomy for Indigenous law administration.

Putting asunder: Divorce and financial relief in Solomon Islands

In a surprisingly large number of former British colonies a core of pre-independence British legislation is still in place. Whilst it has been argued that such legal transplants are purely rules, the field of family law supports the view that they incorporate aspects of the culture in which they originated.1 Divorce laws are a good example of this, being a compromise between different factions of English society, including the church and other defenders of the sanctity of marriage and more pragmatic factions who do not believe in fighting lost causes.2 Where countries of reception have a dynamic legal system and civil society, legal transplants may be adapted to suit the circumstances of the host country. However, where law reform is low on the agenda, the transplant may be a stagnant representation of views held at a distant time in a distant place, which have long since been replaced in their country of origin. In Solomon Islands the ‘cut off’ date for the application of English legislation is 1 January 1961.3 As a result of this, and the fact that the local divorce legislation was passed in 1960, Solomon Islands does not have the benefit of the Divorce Reform Act 1969 (UK), the Matrimonial Proceedings and Property Act 1970 (UK) or the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 (UK), all of which recognize that marriage is a relationship of shared responsibility, rather than one of separate roles, requiring differential treatment of husband and wife. In some countries, this unsatisfactory position is exacerbated by the fact that there is more than one divorce regime in place. This legal pluralism, another legacy of colonialism, results in anomalies and uncertainties, particularly in relation to ancillary relief available on divorce. uf773uf775uf76duf76duf765uf772 uf732uf730uf730uf735 Oxford University Commonwealth Law Journal 85