Procedures
Portuguese-derived procedure with community courts and 20-year ordinary prescription
Civil procedure follows the received Portuguese Código de Processo Civil, with written pleadings and judge-led inquiry. Community courts (tribunais comunitários) operate at the base of the system applying custom and equity without professional judges. Ordinary prescription under the Civil Code is twenty years.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — Community courts, district courts, provincial courts, then the Tribunal Supremo.
- Deadline — Ordinary credits prescribe after 20 years
- Deadline — Appeal (recurso de apelação): 30 days from notification
Governing law
- Código de Processo Civilreceived Portuguese code, as amended
- Código Civil 1966 — prescrição ordinária 20 years
- Lei dos Tribunais ComunitáriosLei 4/92
In practice
The tribunais comunitários are formally part of the justice system but staffed by elected lay judges applying custom and good sense rather than the Civil Code, which makes them the operative first instance for most Mozambicans in a way that the formal procedural code does not describe.