ABSTRACT
This chapter examines cases before the jir from the point of view of the substantive rules of the cases and the nature of those rules. In MbaDuku, civil cases are broken down by the scribe into three categories: marriage, debt, and appeal. The scribes, with varying degrees of accuracy and skill, keep brief records of the cases heard by the mbatarev of the area. The categories into which they are required to classify cases or jir are derived by the Government from European law. Representative jir which concern marriage have been arranged so as to elicit, from the total cluster of rights and obligations of the parties, those that can be claimed with the aid of the mbatarev and their jir. These rules are very often made explicit by the Tiv themselves. Rights in a Tiv woman can be said to be the 'property' of her agnatic lineage, and more particularly of that part which forms her ward-sharing group.
