A close look at legal transplantation: it’s effect on Kenyan customary marriages
Date
2021-03
Authors
Mogeni, Amber Shannon
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Strathmore University
Abstract
Legal transplantation has had a great effect on the application of law in Kenya. The elevation and superimposition of foreign laws degraded the place of African customary law. The purpose of this study is to analyze and differentiate the effect that transplantation has had on customary
marriage laws by examining the transplanted laws that brought conflict and determining the
extent to which these laws are efficient in the Kenyan context. The analysis in the study will take
a comparative approach in examining the development of marriage systems in Kenya and the
development of British marriage systems.
Description
The contention of the transplantation of legal systems has circulated among scholars such as
Alan Watson and F. Von Savigny. Legal transplantation is defined as ‘the transfer of rules, principles and legal concepts from one or more than one legal system to another’. 1 It was first
coined by Scottish-American legal scholar Alan Watson in the 1970s in Legal transplants: An
approach to comparative law.’The legal system borrowing laws is referred to as the recipient
system while the legal system lending laws is referred to as the donor system’. 2 In this case,
Kenya is the recipient system and Britain is the donor system.