ABSTRACT
A case arising from an interpersonal dispute is initiated by a formal complaint made to one of the prominent members of the community council at the level at which it is wished that the case will be heard. In interpersonal disputes a 'suing fee' is given either when the case is first reported or when it is laid before the council. More exactly, perhaps, the ‘partiality’ of a community council is less a matter of individual interests or the interests of parties than of a committed concern to maintain the authority and good order of the residential group. The creation under the British administration of a system of 'Native Courts' had, in 1953-1954, only indirectly affected the traditional judicial processes described in this chapter. All the judicial activities of community councils which the people have described were then in a formal sense illegal.
