Madagascar · Overview
The legal system of Madagascar
A French-model civil-law system with codes on obligations, commerce and criminal law, and a hierarchy running to the Cour de cassation alongside a Conseil d'État for administrative matters. Madagascar is NOT an OHADA member, which is easy to get wrong given the francophone codes: commercial law is domestic, so the Uniform Acts and the CCJA have no application here. Land title is complicated by overlapping colonial registration, post-independence statute and untitled customary occupation.
Legal tradition
Madagascar belongs to the french civil law with customary law tradition. A French-model civil-law system with codes on obligations, commerce and criminal law, and a hierarchy running to the Cour de cassation alongside a Conseil d'État for administrative matters. Madagascar is NOT an OHADA member, which is easy to get wrong given the francophone codes: commercial law is domestic, so the Uniform Acts and the CCJA have no application here. Land title is complicated by overlapping colonial registration, post-independence statute and untitled customary occupation.
How power is divided
Unitary with a decentralised structure of 23 regions and communes. Successive constitutions have promised fuller decentralisation, including provincial autonomy, which has not been implemented.
Where law comes from
- Constitution
- Supreme law; reviewed by the Haute Cour Constitutionnelle.
- Codes and statutes
- French-model civil, commercial, criminal and procedural codes.
- Regulations
- Decrees and orders issued under statutory authority.
- Customary practice
- Socially dominant in land and family matters and partially recognised.
- International treaties
- Ratified treaties rank above ordinary statute.
The legal profession
Avocats admitted to the Ordre des avocats de Madagascar after a law degree and professional training, alongside notaires for authenticated instruments and huissiers for service and enforcement — the standard French division of functions.
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