South Sudan's legal system
South Sudan became independent on 9 July 2011 under the Transitional Constitution of the Republic of South Sudan, which names the customs and traditions of the people among the sources of law. The Judiciary, headed by the Chief Justice, consists of the Supreme Court, Courts of Appeal, High Courts in the states, County Courts and Payam courts. Alongside them, customary law courts established under the Local Government Act of 2009 decide most of the disputes that ordinary people bring, under the authority of chiefs, and their decisions can be taken to the statutory courts.
The main codes are the Penal Code Act and the Code of Criminal Procedure Act of 2008, the Civil Procedure Act of 2007, the Land Act of 2009, the Companies Act of 2012 and the Labour Act of 2017. English is the official language of government and the courts. Prof. Jok's published work explains how these pieces fit together, and where they do not: how customary compensation and the Penal Code treat the same killing, and how section 33(2) of the Civil Procedure Act lets the Minister of Justice stay a case against the state.
Matters he takes in Juba and the states
- Criminal defence before the County, High and appellate courts, and advice to families of people detained.
- Family matters: customary and civil marriage, bridewealth, divorce, custody and inheritance.
- Land and property: ownership and boundary disputes, community land, evictions, and the protection of property owned by people abroad.
- Commercial matters for companies, contractors and NGOs operating in South Sudan.
- Employment for staff of national and international organisations and for their employers.
- Constitutional and human rights cases, including the dismissal of judges and public officers and detention without trial.
For South Sudanese abroad
A large part of the practice is for people in Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Finland and elsewhere who have a matter in South Sudan: a plot in Juba someone else is building on, an inheritance the family cannot agree on, a marriage that must be proved to a foreign authority, a relative in custody. These matters begin with an email in English and the documents the client has, and Prof. Jok reports back in plain terms on what the law says and what can be done.
Published on South Sudanese law
Two of his peer-reviewed articles deal with South Sudan directly: International Criminal Law and Customary Law for Punishment of the Perpetrators of International Crimes in South Sudan (Cambridge University Press, 2023), and Violation of the Constitutional Law and International Provisions in the Dismissal of Justices and Judges from South Sudan Judicial Pillar (Edinburgh University Press, 2023). Courts and lawyers outside South Sudan instruct him for written opinions on these and other questions of South Sudanese law.
