ABSTRACT
Around half a million people, or about one per cent of the population of England and Wales, were identified as black African in the 2001 population census (ONS 2003a: 230, Rees and Butt 2004, Grillo and Mazzucato 2008: 193 n.5). To what extent and in what circumstances does English law allow the various customary laws of these residents to take effect in England, or enforce them through its own institutions and procedures?1
