ABSTRACT
As in the political field, so in the legal field, the history of modern East Africa is characterized by the develop-Lment from a tribal to a national system. From a purely tribal system of laws and courts initially, there emerged dur ing the colonial period a superimposed English system running in parallel with tribal institutions. In the latter years of the colonial period and in the subsequent period of independence, there began a movement towards integrated national systems of courts and a serious attempt to bring together the customary and the imported English laws to produce a national whole. The object of this paper is to describe this development and to examine how far it has been successful in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania.1 It is necessary for this purpose to consider the problem in respect of (a) the courts, and (b) the laws.
