Zambian Legal System

The Zambian legal system is based primarily on the English common law tradition. For instance, English law is used as a gap filler in all aspects of law from procedure, to contract, to legislative acts. Like the American and South African legal systems (which were heavily influenced by the British tradition), Zambia has a hybrid common law system with a legal authority hierarchy as follows: 1) constitutional law 2) statutory law 3) common law 4) customary law and 5) authoritative texts (which are merely persuasive and not binding).The Zambian constitution is the highest law of the land and provides for, essentially, the structure of government and the protection of the Zambian people’s rights.
The legal systems within the United Kingdom were based largely on judge-made law (law developed through decisions by judges necessary to decide cases brought before them - called "common law" or case-law) until around the seventeenth century. Each jurisdiction developed its own forms of common law, with Scotland being especially distinct from the rest. Since that time, new laws and law reform have increasingly been brought about through Acts of Parliament, usually inspired by policies of the Government of the day. Even so, the development of case-law still remains an important source of law. A statement of law made by a judge in a case can become binding on later judges and can in this way become the law for everyone to follow. Whether or not a particular pronouncement (technically called a precedent) by a judge sitting in court when deciding a case does become binding (according to the doctrine of "stare decisis" - stand by what has previously been decided) on later judges depends on two main factors