A Commentary On The South African Bill Of Rights

5 Life.

This major work, written by prominent South African academics, is an introduction to the new constitutional order in South Africa. It does not aim to provide a detailed commentary on fundamental rights in South Africa, but instead seeks to place the rights affirmed in the constitution in a comparative and international context. In doing so the book focuses upon the principles that form the foundation of the new constitutional order: the supremacy of the Constitution, the notion of a democratic constitutional state, and the judicial protection of fundamental rights. This is a book which will be of interest to all lawyers and political scientists particularly those interested in constitutionalism and constitutional litigation.

The Handbook is a comprehensive account of over a decade of South African Bill of Rights jurisprudence. The extensive detail of the Handbook and its coverage of all aspects of Bill of Rights jurisprudence and practice have made it a standard reference work for this important area of law. The book has been thoroughly revised for the fifth edition, in particular to cover developments in the areas of application, constitutional jurisdiction and remedies and the emerging jurisprudence on the positive duties imposed by the Bill of Rights.

This title is part of an established Series which introduces various legal systems of the world. It provides an authoritative and accessible overview of the main branches of South African public, private and commercial law. Offering insight into the rich system of South African law, this title will be of particular interest to the international legal community. The South African legal system has not only developed fascinating mixtures of civil law and common law rules over more than a century, but has also experienced a post-apartheid South Africa. Of particular interest is the way in which so many branches of law have been infused by basic constitutional values. Many of the contributors have published work in their own fields and have considerable experience of presenting their subject matter in a broader comparative perspective. The succinct and balanced nature of the contributions makes this title attractive to a wide audience of academics, students and practitioners with an interest in this remarkable legal system.

In our globalized era it has become impossible to deal effectively with constitutional law and related subjects such as fundamental rights, administrative law and political science without knowledge of foreign systems. A wealth of literature is available on practically all constitutional systems and the intricacies of their application. This, however, presents the constitutionalist with a formidable problem: Which foreign systems should I explore in order to make relevant comparisons, and how should I go about it? This book addresses the core problems of comparability and appropriate comparative methodology in the realm of contemporary constitutionalism. The outcome is, however, not mere theorizing. Most of the text is devoted to an incisive application of the chosen comparative method to four geographically, historically, and culturally divergent, but thoroughly comparable, constitutional systems. In the course of the comparative exercise, contemporary constitutional dogma and constitutional mechanics are analyzed and explained, in many instances in their historical contexts, making the book itself a useful source of comparative and historical information.

This book examines the South African Constitutional Court to determine how it has functioned during the nation's transition.