Marriage, Divorce and Legitimacy in Lesotho

This paper seeks to explore some of the cardinal principles of Sesotho law in relation to marriage, divorce and the legitimacy of children and to consider how far these have been subjected to change during the course of the present century. The method chosen to illustrate this process is a detailed examination of a single unreported case which came before the Lesotho courts during 1971–4, but in which the crucial events which required legal interpretation had occurred some sixty years earlier.