The legal system of Cameroon
Africa's clearest bijural system: English common law applies in the North-West and South-West regions, French-derived civil law in the other eight, a legacy of the 1961 reunification of British Southern Cameroons with French Cameroun. The tension between the two traditions is central to the ongoing anglophone crisis. OHADA governs commercial law nationwide.
Legal tradition
Cameroon belongs to the mixed (civil law and common law) tradition. Africa's clearest bijural system: English common law applies in the North-West and South-West regions, French-derived civil law in the other eight, a legacy of the 1961 reunification of British Southern Cameroons with French Cameroun. The tension between the two traditions is central to the ongoing anglophone crisis. OHADA governs commercial law nationwide.
How power is divided
A strongly presidential system with a bicameral Parliament of National Assembly and Senate, and a judiciary in which the Supreme Court sits above separate common-law and civil-law appellate structures.
Where law comes from
- Constitution
- Supreme; preamble incorporates international rights instruments.
- OHADA Uniform Acts
- Directly applicable commercial law in both legal zones.
- Laws and ordinances
- Parliamentary statutes and presidential ordinances.
- Received common law
- Applies in the North-West and South-West regions.
- Civil-law codes
- Civil, penal (2016) and procedure codes in the francophone regions.
- Customary law
- Applied by customary courts where not repugnant to statute.
The legal profession
A single bar for both legal zones: advocates admitted to the Cameroon Bar Association may practise in common-law and civil-law courts alike, which makes bilingual competence a practical necessity.
Law by topic in Cameroon
- Tax LawAn annually amended General Tax Code inside the CEMAC VAT frameworkThe Code Général des Impôts is amended each year by the finance law. Corporate income tax is 33% including surcharge, VAT is 19.25% including the council surtax, and CEMAC directives set the outer limits of the indirect tax regime.
- Constitutional LawA 1972 constitution, revised 1996 and 2008, over a bijural legal orderThe Constitution of 1972 as revised in 1996 created a Constitutional Council, a Senate and elected regional councils, and the 2008 revision removed presidential term limits. The 1996 text also promised decentralisation, largely unimplemented until the 2019 special status granted to the Northwest and Southwest regions during the Anglophone crisis.
- Family LawThe 1981 Civil Status Ordinance, with customary and Islamic marriage recognisedOrdinance 81/02 governs civil status, marriage and succession. Polygamous and monogamous marriage are both available and the form is elected at registration. Customary and Islamic marriage are recognised where registered, and a long-promised unified family code has not been enacted.
- Property & Land1974 land ordinances vesting untitled land in the stateThe 1974 ordinances divided land into private property, public property and national land, with national land administered by the state. Registration confers an indefeasible title, but most rural holdings remain customary and unregistered, which is the root of most land conflict.
- Criminal LawA unified 2016 Penal Code over two procedural traditionsThe Penal Code was recodified in 2016, replacing the 1967 text, and applies nationwide. The Criminal Procedure Code of 2005 was itself an attempt to fuse anglophone and francophone procedure into a single instrument, and it introduced habeas corpus alongside the civil-law instruction.
- Immigration & NationalityThe 1997 immigration law, with CEMAC free movement in force since 2017Law 97/012 governs entry, residence and expulsion. CEMAC nationals have been entitled to visa-free entry since the 2017 implementation of the free-movement protocol, which is more consequential in practice than the general visa regime.
- Civil ProcedureTwo procedural codes, divided by regionCivil procedure is genuinely bifurcated: the francophone regions apply the received Code de procédure civile et commerciale, while the Northwest and Southwest apply the Southern Cameroons High Court Law of 1955 and English-derived rules. OHADA's simplified recovery procedure applies uniformly on top of both.
- Business & CorporateOHADA Uniform Acts as directly applicable commercial law, with the CCJA as final appealCommercial law is not primarily national. The OHADA Uniform Acts apply directly and take precedence over conflicting domestic provisions, and the Cour commune de justice et d'arbitrage (CCJA) in Abidjan — not the national supreme court — is the final instance on their interpretation. Cameroon hosts no OHADA institution but is its largest economy by GDP; in the Northwest and Southwest the Uniform Acts are applied by common-law courts, which produces a distinctive procedural overlay on identical substantive law.
- Employment & LabourThe 1992 Labour Code, with collective agreements by sectorThe Labour Code of 1992 governs contracts, dismissal and industrial action. The statutory working week is 40 hours, and dismissal for economic reasons requires prior consultation with staff representatives and notification to the labour inspector.
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