Anastasia Msosa (born 1950) was the Chief Justice of Malawi.
Msosa started her career as a State Advocate in 1975 and later worked in the Department of Legal Aid as a Legal Aid Advocate. In 1990, she became Registrar General. In 1992, she was appointed the first Malawian female judge of the High Court and, later in 1997 she went to the Supreme Court of Appeals. She was appointed Chief Justice in 2013, becoming the first female Chief Justice in the country, succeeding Chief Justice Lovemore Munlo after his resignation from the position. [1] [2]
Msosa retired in 2015 at the age of 65. [3] She also served as Chairperson of the Malawi Electoral Commission for the first Parliamentary and Presidential Elections in Malawi from 1993 to 1998. She was reappointed Chairperson of Malawi Electoral Commission in 2004 until 2012. S
Msosa is married to accountant Anderson Msosa and has 7 children.
Arthur Peter Mutharika is a Malawian politician and lawyer who was President of Malawi from May 2014 to June 2020. Mutharika has worked in the field of international justice, specialising in international economic law, international law and comparative constitutional law. He informally served as an adviser to his older brother, President Bingu wa Mutharika, on issues of foreign and domestic policy from the onset of his election campaign until the President's death on 5 April 2012.
Nancy Tembo is a Malawian politician and serves as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Malawi Government since 2022. She is also a Member of Parliament (MP) representing Lilongwe City South West constituency in the National Assembly of the Republic of Malawi.
The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) of Kenya is an independent Commission established under Article 171 of the Constitution of Kenya. Its mandate as stipulated in Article 172 of the Constitution is to promote and facilitate the independence and accountability of the Judiciary and the efficient, effective and transparent administration of justice. The commission has 11 members with the initial team appointed in December 2010.
The Judiciary of Malawi is the branch of the Government of Malawi which interprets and applies the laws of Malawi to ensure equal justice under law and to provide a mechanism for dispute resolution. The legal system of Malawi is based on English law, modified since 1969. The Constitution defines the judiciary as a hierarchical system of courts, with the highest court being a Supreme Court of Appeal, together with a High Court and a number of magistrates' courts. Malawian judiciary has frequently demonstrated its independence in recent years. The constitutional court of Malawi nullified the 2019 election results, citing widespread irregularities. The Supreme court upheld the verdict of the constitutional court. Five Constitutional Court judges who overturned the results of the 2019 election have been nominated by the UK thinktank Chatham House for the 2020 Chatham House Prize. Ultimately the judges went onto win the prize.
Thokozile Matilda Masipa is a judge in the Gauteng Division of the High Court of South Africa. She was the presiding judge in the 2014 trial of Oscar Pistorius for the killing of Reeva Steenkamp. Her verdict of not guilty of murder was later overturned on appeal.
Women in law describes the role played by women in the legal profession and related occupations, which includes lawyers, paralegals, prosecutors, judges, legal scholars, law professors and law school deans.
Irene Chirwa Mambilima was the Chief Justice of Zambia from 2015 until her death in 2021. She also served as Chairperson of the Electoral Commission of Zambia and presided over the 2006 and 2011 general elections and the January 2015 presidential by-election. She was part of several election observer missions including in Liberia, Kenya, Mozambique, and Seychelles. Her other international assignments included serving as Sessional Judge of the Supreme Court of The Gambia in 2003. Mambilima sat on the International Board of the International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ) as a Director of the Africa Region. She was also a member of several professional associations including the Zambia Association of Women Judges, the Editorial Board Council of Law Reporting, the Child Fund (Zambia), Women in Law Southern Africa, and the Council of the Institution of Advanced Legal Education.
Leona Valerie Theron is a judge on the Constitutional Court of South Africa and formerly of the Supreme Court of Appeal. She was first appointed to the bench in 1999, aged 33, becoming the first black woman judge on the KwaZulu-Natal High Court. She was appointed to the Constitutional Court on 1 July 2017 by President Jacob Zuma to replace recently retired Johann van der Westhuizen. Theron is married to Charles Sarjoo and has four children.
Justice Maxon Mbendera SC was a judge of the Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal and the chairman of the Malawi Electoral Commission.
Andrew K.C. Nyirenda is the former Chief Justice of Malawi. He was appointed in March 2015 at Sanjika Palace by President Peter Mutharika.
Helen Gay Murrell is an Australian lawyer and judge who was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory.
Mandisa Muriel Lindelwa Maya Mlokoti is the first female South African Deputy Chief Justice. She is also the first female jurist who has served as President of the Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa (SCA) since 26 May 2017 until 31 August 2022 and the first female chancellor of University of Mpumalanga since 1 July 2021. She had previously served as a judge in the Mthatha High Court, as a puisne judge of the SCA and as Deputy President of the SCA, as well as holding acting positions in various courts.
Tujilane Rose Chizumila is a Malawian lawyer and jurist who was appointed to the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights for a six-year term in 2017.
Lombe Phyllis Chibesakunda is a Zambian lawyer and diplomat. She has been the chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Zambia, Solicitor General, Deputy Minister in the Ministry of Legal Affairs, acting Chief Justice of Zambia, and has served as an Ambassador to Japan, the United Kingdom, the Vatican, and the Netherlands. Chibesakunda is the first woman president of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Court of Justice in Khartoum, Sudan.
Chanju Samantha Mwale is a Malawian lawyer and army officer. She was the first female lawyer in the Malawian Defence Force and in 2016 became the first female officer of the Malawian Army to be promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. She was transferred to a research role in 2016, a move she alleged was illegal and took to the Malawi High Court. The court did not hear the case and Mwale chose to retire from the army.
Musarrat Hilali is a Pakistani judge who has become the second female judge to be elevated to the country's Supreme Court. She previously served as the first woman Chief Justice of the Peshawar High Court. From March 2013 till her elevation to the Supreme Court in July 2023, she had been the only woman on the bench of the Peshawar High Court.
Justice Dr. Jane Mayemu Ansah, S.C. is the former chairperson of the Malawi Electoral Commission. She is also a former Malawian Supreme Court Judge and was the first female Attorney General in Malawi. She is most known for her role as the head of the Malawi's Electoral Commission during the 2019 general elections. Her role in this position sparked national protests both in support and in opposition to her role due to election irregularities resulting in protestors calling for her resignation. In July 2020, she left Malawi for UK.
Martha Karambu Koome is a Kenyan advocate who is currently serving as the Chief Justice of Kenya, and is the first woman to occupy the post.
Esau Chulu is a Zambian judge who has served as the chairperson of the Electoral Commission of Zambia since 2015.