Gender And The New South African Legal Order

South Africa's constitution commits the country to democracy and the elimination of discrimination against women. This volume of essays explores the meaning and implications of gender equality in South Africa.

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.

Feminist lawyers have long been engaged in critiquing the gendered nature of South African law. This project has increased in importance and scope as a result of the centrality of gender equality, as a value and a substantive right, in the South African Constitution. Gender, Law and Justice provides both theoretical and practical tools to enable academic and practising lawyers to apply concepts of gender equality to the law. It introduces readers to basic feminist concepts and arguments, and to a wealth of local, comparative and international material on gender and the law. It also illustrates how the law may be shaped to transform the social, cultural and economic conditions of women's lives in South Africa, at the same time as it acknowledges the limits of legal strategies for change. This book has three main objectives. The first is to identify the different positions of women in South Africa and to examine the disparate impact of the legal system on their lives. Secondly, it aims to expose the gender bias in legal concepts and in the content and application of legal rules. Thirdly, it suggests changes to the law, and evaluates those changes that have already occurred, with a view to developing the law so that it is better able to ensure justice and meet the diverse needs of women in South Africa.

A unique look at the political experiences of women in two regions of the world--Latin American and Eastern and Central Europe--which have moved from authoritarian to democratic regimes. By examining various political attitudes and efforts of women as they learn to participate in the political process, contributors offer important new insights into democratic consolidation.

9. Rights to the land.

Liberal democracies are based on principles of inclusion and tolerance. But how does the principle of tolerance work in practice in countries such as Germany, France, India, South Africa, and the United States, where an increasingly wide range of cultural groups holds often contradictory beliefs about appropriate social and family life practices? As these democracies expand to include peoples of vastly different cultural backgrounds, the limits of tolerance are being tested as never before. Engaging Cultural Differences explores how liberal democracies respond socially and legally to differences in the cultural and religious practices of their minority groups. Building on such examples, the contributors examine the role of tolerance in practical encounters between state officials and immigrants, and between members of longstanding majority groups and increasing numbers of minority groups. The volume also considers the theoretical implications of expanding the realm of tolerance. Some contributors are reluctant to broaden the scope of tolerance, while others insist that the notion of "tolerance" is itself potentially confining and demeaning and that modern nations should aspire to celebrate cultural differences. Coming to terms with ethnic diversity and cultural differences has become a major public policy concern in contemporary liberal democracies, as they struggle to adjust to burgeoning immigrant populations. Engaging Cultural Differences provides a compelling examination of the challenges of multiculturalism and reveals a deep understanding of the challenges democracies face as they seek to accommodate their citizens' diverse beliefs and practices.

Gender and Justice in Multicultural Liberal States explores the challenges that culturally plural liberal states face when they hold competing political commitments to cultural rights and sexual equality, and advances an argument for resolving such dilemmas through democratic dialogue and negotiation. Exploring recent examples of gendered cultural conflicts in South Africa, Canada, and Britain, this book shows that there is an urgent need for workable strategies to mediate the antagonisms between the cultural practices and arrangements of certain ethno-cultural and religious groups and the norms and constitutional rights endorsed by liberal states. Yet such strategies will be successful only insofar as they can resolve conflicts without either reinforcing women's subordination within cultural communities or unjustly dismissing calls for cultural recognition and forms of self-governance. To this end, the book develops an approach to mediating cultural tensions that takes seriously the demands of justice by cultural and religious minorities in liberal democratic states. Grounded in an argument for democratic legitimacy, this approach invokes norms of political inclusion and democratic dialogue, and highlights negotiation and compromise as the best vehicles for arriving at resolutions to conflicts of cultural value. However, it also reconceives the basis of democratic legitimacy so as to include not merely formal expressions of political consent, but also a range of non-formal democratic activity that occur in the private and social spheres, from acts of cultural reinvention and subversion to outright expressions of dissent and cultural refusal.

First published in 1999, this edited collection of essays explores various perspectives on making rights work in South Africa, Canada, the USA and the UK, along with pieces on gender, political, LGBT and British legal rights. The volume was inspired by recent strides forward at the time, including the South African Constitution adopted on the 8th of May 1996, and sought to provide a snapshot of rights debates at the time.