FINDING THE RIGHT BALANCE IN PLURAL SYSTEMS: TRAINING LAWYERS IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC

The formal legal systems operating in the South Pacific bear the imprint of colonialism. Courts, procedure and prevailing legal culture all tend to reflect their common law origins. However, the practice of law in the South Pacific involves a number of distinctive features arising from the region’s jurisdictional, ethnic and cultural diversity. Legal training must equip lawyers with the skills to deal with these variances. Lack of resources and geographical hurdles are other issues for legal training programmes to contend with. This article examines legal training in the South Pacific and discusses the extent to which the challenges arising from legal pluralism and other aspects of diversity have been overcome.