This edition of Acta Juridica is dedicated to the outstanding contribution of Prof Chuma Himonga to the customary law and family law discourse. Prof Himonga is an NRF-Rated Researcher who held the Department of Science and Technology South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI) Chair in Customary Law, Indigenous Values and Human Rights (at the University of Cape Town), funded and managed by the National Research Foundation (NRF), from 2012 to December 2017. In 2016 she received the prestigious Alan Pifer Research Award, awarded annually by the Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Town in recognition of outstanding research that demonstrates relevance to the advancement and welfare of South Africa’s disadvantaged people. Prof Himonga is an Emeritus Professor of Law (at the University of Cape Town) and is the former Dean of Law at the University of Zambia, Lusaka.

In her decades of scholarship, Prof Himonga has analysed the richness and complexities of African family life in a changing world. Rights on the Margins pays tribute to her academic contributions and continues the conversations that she so boldly began. The articles in this volume are inspired by prominent themes of Himonga’s scholarship: the disjuncture between law and social reality; the protection of the rights and interests of vulnerable women in the legal system; and the rights of children. The contributions are diverse in scope and include issues of family law, customary law, women’s rights, evidence, succession and children’s rights.

1. Chuma Himonga’s scholarship on the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act 120 of 1998
2. Transforming litigation in customary marriage disputes: Ubuntu and the responsibility of legal practitioners
3. The active role of South Africa’s Constitutional Court in advancing women’s rights and proprietary interests
in the customary law of marriage
4. Highlighting the higher courts’ obligation to protect vulnerable groups when magistrates fail to conduct the competency test properly
5. Cultural vulnerability and judicial recognition of heterosexual life-partnerships in South Africa
6. What are the implications of Bwanya v The Master of the High Court for customary law?
7. Gender equality in customary marriages: Is the deregulation of customary marriages the solution?
8. The Reform of Customary Law of Succession Act in contemporary South Africa
9. The right of children born to undocumented migrants to have their best interests given paramount importance: Reimagining the South African birth registration process
10. The decision-making power of adolescents to refuse medical treatment in South Africa: Lessons from other 
jurisdictions
11. A reflection on my academic career

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