The records on legal education in Africa held in the IALS Archives are primarily, though not entirely, associated with the British empire and commonwealth. The bulk of relevant records relate to the law in British colonies and ex-colonies as viewed, overseen and developed by British legal education bodies and individuals in collaboration with government, local and international pressure groups. The gradual extension of autonomy to formerly colonial legal systems depicted in the records should be viewed as part of the decolonisation of law.
For records relating to legal education of individuals from Africa in the UK the most valuable collections comprise the examinations records of the Council of Legal Education (CLE), 1852-1997 and The Law Society, 1836-1989. Both collections (up to 1946) have been digitised by Ancestry and access to the digitised versions, including downloading digital copies for private research, is subject to Ancestry’s terms and conditions. To find the examination record of any individual search here: Ancestry collections search.
Other records about legal education in Africa generally may be found in:
- The CLE archives, which contain some correspondence from the 1960s-1980s relating to Ghana, Nigeria, Rhodesia, Sudan, Uganda (Ref: CLE/47)
- The archives of the Commonwealth Legal Association (CLEA): 1971-1995 including some papers relating to legal education in various African countries from the 1970s-1990s (ref: CLEA/1 and relevant papers of William Twining as a CLEA officer (ref: CLEA/2).
- The Institutional Archives of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (IALS), 1934-2021 which holds Directors’ and Secretaries’ papers on legal education in Africa and correspondence with African universities (ref IALS/2, IALS/3 and IALS/9) and records of the International and Professional Training Unit (IPTU), 1988-1996, which ran Commonwealth Young Lawyers Courses (ref: IALS/26/2) and holds Nuffield fellows’ research papers on particular aspects of legal training in African countries (ref: IALS/26/3).
- The International Law Association (ILA) Archives 1866-2019 which contains correspondence files with various African branches of the ILA (ref ILA/1/7-8), records of conferences held in Africa (ref ILA/2), committees covering African issues (ref ILA/3), records of regional African branches of the ILA (ILA/4) and relevant Library material (ref ILA/6).
- Papers of Sir Dingle Mackintosh Foot (FOOT), 1926-1979 which include legal correspondence and press cuttings relating to Nigeria and Uganda.
- Papers of Elizabeth (Betty) Moys, (1928-2002) relating to Law Librarianship. Betty Moys was based at the the Universities of Ghana and of Lagos, Nigeria while developing her Classification Schemes for Legal Material. Though there is no specific reference to Africa or its constituent countries, it is highly likely that Moyes’ general correspondence and papers will contain material relating to her work in Africa.
- Papers of Professor William L Twining, Law Teacher (TWIN), 1944-2006, law lecturer in Khartoum and Dar-es-Salaam. Some papers were created as officer of various organisations concerned with African legal education (ref: TWIN/2) and as a member of several projects relating to Africa (ref: TWIN/3-TWIN/4).
Related Material
See IALS Archives subject guide: Colonialism, Decolonisation and the Law and jurisdiction guides on records covering Ghana, Libya and Nigeria.
About the IALS Archives
The IALS Archives was established in the 1990s as an outcome of a project to investigate the location and availability for research of records of legal education. During the project IALS accepted a number of collections from individuals and organisations which were at risk of loss. Since the end of the project IALS has continued to accept deposits of archive material relating to legal education. In 2022 the IALS Archives achieved accreditation from The National Archives.
