Family
Customary law governs most marriage and inheritance, with no unified family code
There is no comprehensive statutory family code; marriage, divorce, bridewealth and inheritance are governed largely by the customary law of the parties' communities, applied in customary courts.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — Customary courts at boma, payam and county level handle most family matters; statutory courts hear appeals.
Governing law
- Transitional Constitution 2011, Articles 15-16 — marriage and women's rights
- Local Government Act 2009 — customary courts
- Child Act 2008
In practice
South Sudan is the clearest case in this batch of the atlas's default assumption failing: there is no family code to summarise, and the operative law is the customary law of a specific community, applied by chiefs' courts under the Local Government Act. Bridewealth in cattle is central to marriage validity and to the consequences of divorce, and disputes about it are among the most common matters litigated anywhere in the country. The constitution guarantees equality and sets 18 as the age of majority in the Child Act, and those provisions conflict in practice with customary early marriage, which remains prevalent; where the conflict is litigated the constitutional provision has sometimes prevailed, but not uniformly. Because the content of the applicable law varies by community and is not codified, a single national statement of family law would be false, which is why this is research.