CARLOS FEIJÓ HIGHLIGHTS IMPORTANCE OF INTEGRATING COSTUME AS A SOURCE OF LAW

 The constitutionalist Carlos Feijó highlighted Monday in central Huambo province the importance of integrating the costume as a source of law, thus, overcoming the legalistic centralism that considered the legislation as the main and only source of law.

Carlos Feijó was speaking at presentation ceremony of the work “The institutionalisation of Traditional Power in Angola” by the university professor and dean of the Faculty of Law of the José Eduardo dos Santos University (UJES), João Valeriano.

Feijó said that the previous matrix contrasts the reality of the facts, as the customary law stems from traditions, interactions and cultural experiences.

The professor said that the work reinforces the legal pluralism of the Angolan judicial system, within the framework of the consolidation of democracy in Angola, where the author portrays the institutionalisation of local power in Angola, in a technical-legal narrative, in the light of article 7 of the Constitution of the Republic of Angola.

The 397-page book, whose presentation session gathered several individuals, addresses the topic from a historical perspective, from its structure, cohabitation with other local bodies, among others.

Speaking to the press, the author said that work is part of his doctoral thesis presented and defended this year at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon, Portugal.

In his view, the recognition of custom as one of the sources of law, alongside the law, was a harbinger of a Democratic State of Law, as an end to the State's monopoly of creating legal norms, allowing the creation of conditions for that more interstate entities operate in this matter.

“Democracy has a price that consists in the State admitting that other institutions have the right and the legitimacy to create legal norms to regulate social coexistence, always taking into account the obedience to universal and democratic principles that may conflict with dignity human personnel, ”he said.

However, he said that he tried to approach the topic taking into account the principles of irreversibility of the fundamental rights of citizens, harmony, practical agreement and legality.