COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course is designed to impart to law students the practice and modalities of prosecuting or defending a civil action from the time one thinks to go to court through to the final judgment. The course gives an overview of the civil process, including preliminary considerations before court action.
The course starts with a brief introduction of what is Civil Procedure, where applicable and Sources of Civil Procedure. Followed by modes of dispute settlement used in Tanzania in resolving civil disputes. And lastly, the course deals with civil litigation, which includes consideration before court action, commencement of civil litigation in court, parties to civil litigation, pleadings, discovery, motions, trial, appeals, enforcement of judgments, judicial review, administrative litigation and other variations. In this part, a critique of the trial process is examined in an examination of the traditional adversarial system and non-adversarial systems, and various forms of alternative dispute resolution within the adversarial context.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
The course is expected :
- To equip
students with general understanding of the nature and practice of civil law and
civil litigation.
- To acquaint
students with the rules of interpretation in civil procedure, i.e. no room for
elasticity of interpretation thus no technical construction of provisions of
the law, that the provision of the civil procedure code should be construed
liberally and technical objections should not be allowed to defeat substantial
justice
- To acquaint
student with proper practice, procedure and preliminary considerations in
conducting civil cases.
- To
enlighten students on the court’s jurisdiction with respect to civil matters.
- To equip
students with skills necessary to draft court processes in civil cases.
- To
enlighten students on the other modes of dispute settlements applied to civil
litigation in Tanzania, their weaknesses and strength as against civil
adversarial mode of dispute settlement
COURSE CONTENT
- Definition and
sources of civil procedures.
- Modes of disputes settlement.
- Civil litigation.
- Principles
covering the application of civil procedures.
- The Civil
Procedure Code; pre-hearing procedures.
- Disposal of suits without trial; the hearing.
- Judgments and decrees; remedies where a party
is dissatisfied by court decisions.
- Contemporary
issues in civil procedure and litigation.
COMPULSORY READING MATERIALS
- Chipeta B. D, Civil Procedure in Tanzania. A student’s manual
- Christopher R. Drahozal Commercial Arbitration: Cases And Problems
- David Crump, et al, Case And Materials On Civil Procedure