When the North African Muslim traveler Ibn Battuta visited Mali in 1353, he found much to praise in the justice system:

The Negroes possess some admirable qualities. They are seldom unjust, and have a greater abhorrence of injustice than any other people. Their sultan shows no mercy to anyone guilty of the least act of it. There is complete security in their country. Neither traveler nor inhabitant in it has anything to fear from robbers or men of violence. They do not confiscate the property of any white man who dies in their country, even if it be uncounted wealth.

Source: Thomas Hodgkin, "Kingdoms of the Western Sudan," in The Dawn of African History, edited by Roland Oliver (London: Oxford University Press, 1968), p. 41.