ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the extant status of that law in the municipal laws of independent Botswana and Zimbabwe to find out whether its legal position in both countries underwent any changes at independence and whether and how the judiciary has handled the subject. The Zimbabwean post-colonial Constitution did not clarify the legal position and role of international law, customary and conventional, in municipal law. Judicial practice under both the Roman-Dutch law and English common law is that rules of customary international law are deemed to be self-operative in municipal law. At independence, the status and role of treaties in Zimbabwean municipal law was regulated by the 1980 Lancaster House Constitution. The 1966 Independence Constitution of Botswana does not have a clear and express provision categorically and unambiguously according international law a place and role in Botswana municipal law. Both countries still adhere to the monist theory with respect to customary international law and dualist conception in relation to treaties.
