Judiciary of Malawi

[6] The High Court of Malawi has unlimited original jurisdiction to hear and determine any civil or criminal proceedings.

[8] Cases before it are heard informally, and with some restrictions on legal representation, by a panel consisting of a chairperson and one representative each of employers and employees.

[9] These have defined criminal and civil jurisdiction depending on their level, but expressly excluding cases of treason, murder or manslaughter.

In addition, mainly in rural areas, there were several levels of local courts with varying powers to hear disputes such as divorces and other matrimonial issues, inheritance and access to land based on traditional customary law.

Aleke Banda, the Minister of Finance, particularly attacked the use of defence lawyers and the legal safeguards imposed by the English-law rules of evidence.

Banda (who was president from 1966) suggested that the judge should resign and specifically linked traditional law to making punishment certain, claiming that lack of evidence was not proof of innocence.

The majority of the judges were chiefs without legal training, appointed by and liable to dismissal by Banda, without any judicial independence.

Defendants were not allowed lawyers to plead their cases and had no automatic rights either to call witnesses or to appeal (these were at the discretion of the courts and the Minister of Justice).

[11][12]: 363 The traditional courts gained a reputation for corruption and for prosecuting Banda's political opponents, for example the high-profile trials in 1976 of Albert Muwalo, Secretary General of the Malawi Congress Party and Focus Gwede, Head of the Police Special Branch, charged with attempting to assassinate Banda, and the 1983 treason trial of Orton Chirwa, who was Minister of Justice until the Cabinet Crisis of 1964 and his wife, Vera Chirwa.