NEGOTIATING LAW AND CUSTOM: JUDICIAL DOCTRINE AND WOMEN'S PROPERTY RIGHTS IN UGANDA

Abstract

Since the promulgation of Uganda's new constitution in 1995, the Law Reform Comission (LRC) has had the task of revising statutory laws to conform to the new constitution. One focal point has been the drafting of a Domestic Relations Bill. The bill proposes significant changes in women's legal status within the institutions of marriage and succession. Under the new statute, for example, women would gain joint marital property rights over any assets acquired during the course of marriage. Women could use the law to challenge husbands who seek to sell property or shift assets among their wives. The bill also proposes that when a married person dies intestate, the suviving spouse(s) should be appointed administrator to the estate, unless the courts have good reason not to do so. This should facilitate widows who seek to protect their assets from relatives who perceive in death opportunities to grab property. Not suprisingly, publication of the bill generated considerable outrage among men who perceive the extension of property rights to women as a direct threat to a natural social order privileging male authority.

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