Substantial Justice : : An Anthropology of Village Courts in Papua New Guinea / / Michael Goddard.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Berghahn Books Complete eBook-Package 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Goddard, Michael,
• Place / Publishing House: New York; , Oxford : : Berghahn Books, , [2009]; ©2009
• Year of Publication: 2009
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (334 p.)

Papua New Guinea's village court system was introduced in 1974, partly in an effort to overcome the legal, geographical, and social distance between village societies and the country's formal courts. There are now more than 1100 village courts all over PNG, hearing thousands of cases each week. This anthropological study is grounded in ethnographic research on three different village courts and the communities they serve. It also explores the colonial historical background to the establishment of the village court system, and the local and global processes influencing the efforts of village courts to deal with everyday disputes among grassroots Melanesians.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- List of Illustrations -- List of Abbreviations -- Preface and Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Colonial Law: An Extended Prelude to the Village Courts -- 2. The Administration of Village Courts -- 3. Village Courts on Trial -- 4. Three Village Courts and Their Social Environments -- 5. Village Court Politics -- 6. Pari Village Court in Action -- 7. Konedobu Village Court in Action -- 8. Erima Village Court in Action -- 9. Between Groups and Individuals -- Conclusion: The Local and the Global -- Appendix: The Official Range of Offences Heard by Village Courts -- References -- Index