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Full-Text Articles in Law
Pursuing Gender Equality Through The Courts: The Role Of South Africa’S Women Judges, Penelope Andrews
Pursuing Gender Equality Through The Courts: The Role Of South Africa’S Women Judges, Penelope Andrews
Articles & Chapters
This chapter will focus on the contribution of female judges to the transformation of the judiciary in South Africa and specifically the pursuit of gender equality. It is a limited project that will explore the impacts of women judges on constitutional jurisprudence and how the influence of women judges has interacted with the broader transformation of the judicial and political system in South Africa after apartheid. In examining the impact of women judges on constitutional jurisprudence with respect to gender equality, I explore whether women judges have, in their judgments, conscripted and interpreted the constitution to highlight and guarantee its …
Editorial: Special Focus On 'Dignity Takings And Dignity Restorations', Penelope Andrews
Editorial: Special Focus On 'Dignity Takings And Dignity Restorations', Penelope Andrews
Articles & Chapters
No abstract provided.
Justice, Reconciliation, And The Masculinist Way: What Role For Women In Truth And Reconciliation Commissions?, Penelope Andrews
Justice, Reconciliation, And The Masculinist Way: What Role For Women In Truth And Reconciliation Commissions?, Penelope Andrews
Articles & Chapters
During periods of armed conflict, women and girls are frequently subjected to violence because of their gender. National governments have attempted to address this issue through transitional justice mechanisms like truth and reconciliation commissions. The record of women’s input and participation in these processes, however, is rather poor. In this article, I highlight the role of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (SATRC) and the opportunity the SATRC missed in failing to comprehensively confront andexamine the systemic nature of violence against women under apartheid. Many transitional justice mechanisms, the SATRC being one of the more vivid examples, have adopted a …
The Cause Lawyer’S Cause, Frank W. Munger
The Cause Lawyer’S Cause, Frank W. Munger
Articles & Chapters
The promise of human rights in South Africa may depend significantly on the course chosen by a professional and relatively independent South African judiciary. But what about the promise of human rights in other developing states which lack a judiciary with similar potential? Cause lawyers, increasingly visible in many of these new states, are presumed carriers of liberal legalism and democracy and celebrated for their courageous defence of human rights even in the absence of an independent court system. This comment argues that celebration of cause lawyers may reflect presumptions about their causes that are questionable even in the Global …
A Bittersweet Heritage: Learning From The Making Of South African Legal Culture, Stephen Ellmann
A Bittersweet Heritage: Learning From The Making Of South African Legal Culture, Stephen Ellmann
Articles & Chapters
This essay responds to Martin Chanock's argument that race tainted the entire enterprise of South African judging. It seeks to understand how that could have been so, and looks to such driving forces as whites' guilt, denial, identity-building, self-protection, and legitimation for explanations. Then it asks whether an institution so tainted should now be altogether abandoned as part of the rebuilding of post-apartheid South Africa. The essay answers that much should be changed, but that the existence of a judiciary laying claim to a special expertise and responsibility in interpreting law and protecting rights a key heritage of the old …
Marking The Path Of The Law, Stephen Ellmann
Marking The Path Of The Law, Stephen Ellmann
Articles & Chapters
This article, published in South Africa's Constitutional Court Review, focuses on the Constitutional Court of South Africa in order to discuss the nature of constitutional judging more generally. Looking to Brown v. Board of Education as an example, it argues that technical skill – though obviously important – is not the highest virtue of the constitutional judge, and that a central attribute of constitutional judging is commitment to the values of the constitution. But commitment to values is more than a matter of rational assent. As everyday experience and neurological evidence teach us, commitment naturally and unavoidably involves the judge’s …
"Big Love"'? The Recognition Of Customary Marriages In South Africa, Penelope Andrews
"Big Love"'? The Recognition Of Customary Marriages In South Africa, Penelope Andrews
Articles & Chapters
This Comment contextualizes the issue of polygamous marriages within the South African constitutional paradigm, one committed unequivocally to the principle of equality. This Comment analyzes how South African law, European in origin, had to incorporate the laws and institutions of indigenous communities within the national legal framework, as part of the overall transformative legal project underway in the country since 1994. By focusing on the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act, this Comment examines such incorporation, while questioning its effect on the overall project of constitutionalism, human rights, and equality.
A Constitutional Confluence: American ‘State Action’ Law And The Application Of South Africa’S Socioeconomic Rights Guarantees To Private Actors, Stephen Ellmann
A Constitutional Confluence: American ‘State Action’ Law And The Application Of South Africa’S Socioeconomic Rights Guarantees To Private Actors, Stephen Ellmann
Articles & Chapters
As constitutional protection of human rights expands around the world, the question of whether constitutional rights should protect people not only against state action but also against the conduct of private actors is once again timely. Few nations have so broadly, or so ambiguously, endorsed the application of constitutional guarantees to constrain private conduct (known outside the United States as "horizontality") as South Africa. The constitution approved in 1996 applies fully and without qualification to all "organs of state," and this term is defined in section 239 in potentially very broad terms, notably embracing "any other functionary or institution ... …
Introduction: Towards Understanding South African Constitutionalism, Penelope Andrews, Stephen Ellmann
Introduction: Towards Understanding South African Constitutionalism, Penelope Andrews, Stephen Ellmann
Articles & Chapters
No abstract provided.
A Grand Exercise In Forgiveness, Or Justice Held Hostage To Truth? South Africa’S Truth And Reconciliation Commission, Penelope Andrews
A Grand Exercise In Forgiveness, Or Justice Held Hostage To Truth? South Africa’S Truth And Reconciliation Commission, Penelope Andrews
Articles & Chapters
An evaluation of the success or otherwise of the TRC may seem premature, but there have been some interesting reflections thus far. One such work is David Dyzenhaus’ book, Judging the Judges, Judging Ourselves: Truth, Reconciliation and the Apartheid Legal Order. The book is a narrative and critique of the legal hearings which took place over three days at the TRC. This is a review of the Dyzenhaus book.
Affirmative Action In South Africa: Transformation Or Tokenism, Penelope Andrews
Affirmative Action In South Africa: Transformation Or Tokenism, Penelope Andrews
Articles & Chapters
No abstract provided.
Discussant, In Response To Justice Richard J. Goldstone, 1998 Otto L. Walter Lecture: International Human Rights At Century’S End, Stephen Ellmann
Discussant, In Response To Justice Richard J. Goldstone, 1998 Otto L. Walter Lecture: International Human Rights At Century’S End, Stephen Ellmann
Articles & Chapters
No abstract provided.
The Creation Of South Africa's Constitution: Introduction, Stephen J. Ellmann
The Creation Of South Africa's Constitution: Introduction, Stephen J. Ellmann
Articles & Chapters
No abstract provided.
The Creation Of South Africa's Constitution: Introduction, Stephen J. Ellmann
The Creation Of South Africa's Constitution: Introduction, Stephen J. Ellmann
Articles & Chapters
No abstract provided.
Legal Text And Lawyers’ Culture In South Africa, Stephen Ellmann
Legal Text And Lawyers’ Culture In South Africa, Stephen Ellmann
Articles & Chapters
No abstract provided.