Paper short abstract:

This paper asks how we might conceive of justice in situations of intense social and legal pluralism. Through ethnographic engagement with divorce trials, I explore the implications of the temporary reconciliation of contested ideals in magistrates' judgements for understandings of justice.

Paper long abstract:

From the human rights trainings offered by local NGOs to the teachings of expert initiators, women in rural southern Malawi are exposed to, and engage with, a plethora of ideas about gender, justice and ethical personhood in their daily lives.

This paper examines these competing norms and conflicting moral frameworks through ethnographic exploration of divorce case trials in contemporary rural magistrates' courts. Tensions are highlighted between human rights-oriented notions of justice, which entail equality, and alternatives that draw on understandings of the materiality of morality and are more accommodating of complementary gender roles. Material morality refers to the complex ways in which moral personhood and ethical conduct are connected to agricultural and domestic labour, production, reproduction and distribution, and the social relations entailed therein. These, in turn, are implicated in a gendered division of labour, which informs social interactions, emerges in divorce hearings, and is challenged and/or reinforced by NGO representatives and initiation practitioners, in sometimes unpredictable ways.

Presiding magistrates wrestle with many of the same conceptions of masculinity, femininity, morality and justice that disputing spouses appeal to and elide as they present their cases in court. The results are uneven and reveal the intricacies of a complex social and legal landscape. If the desired outcome is 'justice', what kind of justice(s) is it, and how might it challenge or reinforce forms of justice suggested by human rights provisions, 'customary law', or embodied notions of material morality?