Chief Justice Twomey gets doctorate in Law |16 September 2015

Chief Justice Mathilda Twomey has successfully obtained her doctorate in Law, becoming the only judge in the country to obtain this highest academic degree in law.

After three years of intense academic research, Chief Justice Twomey successfully defended her doctoral thesis at the National University of Ireland, Galway on Friday September 11.

Her thesis, entitled ‘Legal Métissage: The Mixing of Common Law and Civil Law in Seychelles’, was supervised by Marie McGonagle from the National University of Ireland, Galway and Dr Seán Patrick Donlan from the University of Limerick.

The Board of Examiners comprised Professor Donncha O'Connell as Chair, Dr Ciara Smyth as internal examiner and Dr David Zammitt from Malta as external examiner.

Speaking after the viva voce examination Dr Twomey stated that her research about the micro and mixed jurisdiction of Seychelles provides important information for general legal theory.

The Seychellois experience may have important lessons for legal transplantation, reception, and harmonisation of laws as well as relevance for colonialism (including neo-colonialism) and culture for the viability and sustainability of such mixed systems of law.

In the context of Seychelles, the thesis contains a substantive in-depth analysis of public, private law and procedural law of Seychelles and will be useful for all legal practitioners and law students.

The work also clarifies Seychellois legal problems - linguistic, educational, judges and lawyers untrained in the tradition, hegemonic pressures - but offers solutions in terms of additional doctrine, improving the curriculum of the University of Seychelles, School of Law and establishing a Law Reform Commission.

Dr Twomey's research was funded by the Irish Research Council and a Hardiman Scholarship from the University of Galway.

She returns to Seychelles on September 25 to resume work on a residential basis in both the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal of Seychelles after having lived in Ireland for twenty years.

The Judiciary of Seychelles has congratulated Dr Twomey on her great success.