Francis Nyalali

Francis Lucas Nyalali
4th Chief Justice of Tanzania
In office 1977–2000
President	Julius Nyerere
Preceded by	Augustine Saidi
Succeeded by	Barnabas Samatta
Chairman of the Nyalali Commission
In office 1991–2002
Personal details
Born	(1935-02-03)3 February 1935 Kasubuya, Mwanza, Tanganyika Territory
Died	2 April 2003(2003-04-02) (aged 68) Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Occupation	Lawyer Judge

Francis Lucas Nyalali (3rd February, 1935 – 2nd April, 2003). He was the Chief Justice of Tanzania from 1977 to 2000, making him the longest serving Chief Justice in the country's history, serving longer than the average serving time for a Chief Justice within the Commonwealth of Nations, which is approximately 3.6 years. He was known for promoting easy access to justice, the rule of law, constitutionalism, and human rights.

In 1991, he chaired a presidential commission to review Tanzania's political system known as the 'Nyalali Commission'. The commission recommended, among other things, the reintroduction of multi-party politics in the country, and a review of the union structure between Tanganyika and Zanzibar.[1]

At a time when many American legal scholars are turning away from courts, stressing the development of legal norms outside of the judiciary, Jennifer Widner offers us a contrasting perspective on the centrality of courts to democracy in her powerful history of the role of courts and judicial review in democratization in Africa, Building the Rule of Law: Francis Nyalali and the Road to Judicial Independence in Africa (Norton & Company, Inc., 2001).

As this review essay illustrates, Widner focuses on the role of one judge, a man who would see himself as embodying the role in Tanzania that Chief Justice John Marshall had played in the United States. As he worked to carve out a role for courts in the politics of Tanzania, Francis Nyalali focused especially on the importance of public support for the courts, on creating a constituency for judicial review. Creating a public that cared about courts, was, for Nyalali, an essential component of democratic government.