ABSTRACT
Reconciliation is supposed to characterize African court procedure in contrast to European procedure. This chapter suggests that although reconciliation is an important value, it is not an 'ultimate, almost mystical, value' of African courts to which legal norms are sacrificed. In general, writers identify reconciliation with the court's decision; they fail to distinguish in this respect between the two decisions any court anywhere must make. Those are a decision as to the relevant facts and the appropriate legal rules to be applied, and the decision as to the appropriate sanction for the judgment. After the judges have reinforced the legal norms another attempt may be made at reconciliation or other readjustments. This is the third stage in the judicial process, when the judges take their second decision, viz. what sanctions to attach to their first, legal, decision.
