Chimwemwe Mphembedzu at 15 was arrested on suspicion of homicide. He was remanded in prison for four years when he contracted a life-threatening illness. His application for bail, some four years after arrest, succeeded, and was partly based on custody time limits provided for in section 161F of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Code.
Habeous Corpus Application; ten years awaiting trial.
An Act to consolidate the law relating to children by making provision for child care and protection and for child justice; and for matters of social development of the child and for connected matters
"The Applicants’ affidavits show that he is a convicted prisoner serving a 12 year prison term effective 2006. He was first at Chichiri Prison but presently he is at Domasi Prison. He avers that ever since his imprisonment, he and his fellow prisoners have been subjected to torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment which is an infringement of his rights which he believes to be non-derogable as per Section 44 of the Constitution."
by Dr. Msaiwale Chigawa. Concept Paper One, The Law Commission Constitutional Review Conference, March 2006.
This report by Wilfried Schärf, Chikosa Banda, Ricky Röntsch, Desmond Kaunda, and Rosemary Shapiro sought to inform Malawi Law Commission deliberations. "In rural areas the study found that customary justice forums handle some of the criminal cases as well as the vast majority of civil disputes occurring throughout the country. Proceedings are guided by locally-based customary rules. This despite the fact that since 1995 chiefs and traditional authorities have been stripped of their formal adjudicative powers by their exclusion from any formal judicial duties."
The people of Malawi, recognizing the sanctity of human life and the unity of all mankind; guided by their private consciences and collective wisdom; seeking to guarantee the welfare and development of all the people of Malawi, national harmony and peaceful international relations; desirous of creating a constitutional order in the Republic of Malawi based on the need for an open, democratic and accountable government: HEREBY adopt the following as the Constitution of the Republic of Malawi:
An Act to establish a Council of Legal Education and to provide for its functions and responsibilities; to establish criteria for the admission of persons to practise before the courts of Malawi as legal practitioners, and to provide for the professional discipline of legal practitioners; to establish the Malawi Law Society as a body corporate and to make provision for its objects and membership; to make comprehensive provision in relation to notaries public and for matters incidental thereto and connected therewith.
An Act to establish a Code of Criminal Law
