Editorial

• Author: Danwood M. Chirwa
• DOI: 10.10520/EJC161869
• Published date: 01 January 2013
• Pages: IV-V
• Date: 01 January 2013

EDITORIAL

This volume comes out way behind schedule for which we profusely

apologise. Over the past two years, we have faced a number of challenges, the

most serious being the end of our funding relationship with the Open Society

Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA). We are very grateful for the support we

received from OSISA between 2007 and 2012.

This journal was established to fulfil academic and advocacy objectives.

The funding we received from OSISA allowed us to fulfil these dual objec-

tives in ways that were mutually reinforcing. Our advocacy initiatives led to

the holding of conferences on selected topics involving key players in the

Malawian legal system, which in turn generated research papers that were

subsequently reviewed and published in the journal. The end of the six-year

funding relationship with OSISA has meant that we have not been able to

host conferences and hence to generate a sufficient number of submissions

focusingonMalawi.Ithasalsomeantthatwecannotaffordtopublishin

print two issues per year. As a response to these challenges, the MLJ will now

publish one issue per year. We will see how long we cope with one issue be-

fore embarking on electronic publication only. These measures have been

and will be taken without compromising our commitment to rigorous peer

review and editorial processes.

This volume has a particularly interesting collection of articles dealing

with various legal subjects in a number of countries. The first article by scien-

tists Wells Utembe and Mary Gulumian tackle the issue of the regulatory

regime for nanotechnology in Malawi. Most legal scholars will find this arti-

cle to be informative and revealing. The regulatory problems that the issue of

nanotechnology raises are worth taking seriously, given the serious health

and environmental risks that this modern technology has.

Another article dealing with the issue of regulation also focuses on Ma-

lawi. Mike Chinoko’s article shows that, despite the fact that tobacco has

served as Malawi’s economic backbone formanyyears,thetobaccoindustry

is one of the least competitive in the country. The institutions established to

regulate this industry seem to be involved in anti-competitive behaviour and

are unwilling to investigate cartel behaviour. The policy and other proposals

made in this article are insightful.

Three articles deal with different topics concerning the law in Ghana,

Nigeria, Uganda and Ethiopia. These articles provide the reader with impor-

tant insights into the workings of African legal systems and how they address

issues of constitutional interpretation, dispute resolution concerning cus-

tomary land tenure and judicial independence. The last article tackles one of

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