Paper short abstract:

This paper explores how and why South Sudanese have sought to access as well as to avoid the punitive force of the state, and how ideas of policing and judicial sanction have interacted with indigenous judicial cultures and practices since the colonial period.

Paper long abstract:

The customary law systems which have been recognised as integral to the legal and judicial structures of the new state of South Sudan are often associated with restorative justice mechanisms and assumed to be less adversarial or punitive than state justice. Yet the chiefs' courts which are assumed to apply such customary law in reality impose punitive fines, imprisonment or flogging, alongside restorative compensation awards. Since the first chiefs' courts were established in the colonial period, they were backed up - or claimed to be backed up - by the force of state policing and punishment. This paper will explore how and why people have sought to access as well as to avoid the punitive force of the state, and how ideas of policing and judicial sanction have interacted with indigenous judicial cultures and practices. It draws on extensive archival and oral research on the history of local government and justice in South Sudan. It argues that we need to move beyond the often romantic depictions of restorative and consensual community justice, to understand its politics and violence, and its place in state formation.