Based on extensive interviews with litigants, chiefs, and court officials, the project report Local Justice in Southern Sudan by Cherry Leonardi, Leben Moro, Martina Santschi and Deborah Isser (2010) argues that the role of the chiefs’ courts has evolved to the point where the line separating them from government courts is blurred. The final report provides an empirical account of everyday practice in selected local courts, exploring the paradoxes outlined above and notes how they are resolved in the practice of justice in contemporary chiefs’ courts.