Court-Managed Civil Procedure of the High Court of Namibia

Court-Managed Civil Procedure of the High Court of Namibia: Law, Procedure and Practice represents the first textbook of its kind and introduces the reader to the most important reforms that have taken place since 2011 in the civil procedure of Namibia’s High Court. During this period, the High Court of Namibia successfully implemented judicial case management, electronic filing, and court-connected alternative dispute resolution.

Written by the head of Namibia’s High Court and architect of the reform of that Court’s civil process since he assumed office in 2004, the book demonstrates how the judges’ and lawyers’ roles have changed under judicial case management guided by the reformed civil justice system’s overriding objective to ‘facilitate the resolution of the real issues in dispute justly and speedily, efficiently and cost effectively’ at minimum cost. The book maps the process by which Namibia was transformed from an orthodox adversarial system into one where the pace of civil litigation has been removed from litigants and lawyers and placed in the hands of judges. In that sense, the book holds important lessons for jurisdictions such as South Africa which, plagued by delay in delivery of civil justice, are considering radical reforms to their civil justice systems.

Court-Managed Civil Procedure of the High Court of Namibia shows how the court rules from the old order have either been discarded or repurposed to achieve the salutary goals of judicial case management. The book explains the High Court’s jurisdiction and how that court fits in Namibia’s judicial architecture. The procedures are explained in easy to follow language and with logical coherence. There is detailed reference to Namibian and comparative authority throughout, demonstrating its scholarship as well as its enormous usefulness to practitioners, judges, and students of law alike, not only in Namibia but in common-law jurisdictions of especially Southern Africa.

This work is destined to be an indispensable handbook on judicial case management, as well as on all other aspects of civil procedure which are eloquently discussed with reference to Namibian and comparative case law.