Hopes are rising that Malawi’s new president, lawyer Peter Mutharika, who took office on 31 May, may push through long overdue legal reforms.

Law Society of Malawi chief executive Paula Caetano told the Gazette: ‘We have spent the last gazillion years lobbying for the reform of archaic and restrictive laws governing the way the legal system operates in my country. But now that we have a president who is also a lawyer, things might change for the better.’

Caetano is spending six weeks in London with the Law Society on a Commonwealth scholarship.