Published Online:January 2025
Product Name:The IUP Journal of Law Review
Product Type:Article
Product Code:IJLR020125
DOI:10.71329/IUPLR/2025.15.1.27-43
Author Name:Subhash Chandra Singh
Availability:YES
Subject/Domain:Law
Download Format:PDF
Pages:27-43
The Naga communities in Northeast India have been allowed to retain their customary laws and practices without any outside interference, for when a tribal community loses its cultural values, it also loses its separate identity and existence. It is, therefore, important to protect the customs and traditions of tribal communities through appropriate legislation to preserve their ethnic identity and shared cultural beliefs. Naga customary laws are not codified, they are transmitted orally from one generation to the next, and vary from village to village and clan to clan. Tribal courts constituted by clans govern criminal justice in Nagaland. This paper examines Naga customary laws and practices and stresses the need for codifying them for more efficient application.
In countries with common and civil law systems, the notion of customary law has been recognized to refer to universally approved rules, which have been handed down from time immemorial. The traditional notion of customary law as being derived from an immemorial past is increasingly being reconsidered.