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Comparative and Foreign Law Commons

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University of Michigan Law School

Civil Rights and Discrimination

South Africa

Articles 1 - 5 of 5

Full-Text Articles in Comparative and Foreign Law

The Developing Equality Jurisprudence In South Africa, Karthy Govender Jan 2009

The Developing Equality Jurisprudence In South Africa, Karthy Govender

Michigan Law Review First Impressions

Apartheid was technically about separateness, but it was fundamentally about inequality. The founding premise of the ideology was to preserve the total hegemony of white South Africans. The liberation organizations opposing the apartheid regime sought to affirm that the country belonged to all those that lived in it. Thus, it is unsurprising that the commitment to equality is one of the founding values of the Constitution and an indelible thread woven throughout the fabric of the Bill of Rights. After some misstatements about certain rights being more important than others, courts have interpreted rights in the Bill of Rights to …


Untold Stories: Gender-Related Persecution And Asylum In South Africa, Lindsay M. Harris Jan 2009

Untold Stories: Gender-Related Persecution And Asylum In South Africa, Lindsay M. Harris

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

This Article explains the particular difficulties that female asylum seekers and survivors of gender-related persecution face, reaffirming the need for the practical and sensitive application of international and domestic gender guidelines. Extensive research into client files and interviews with key decision makers prove that, despite scholarship suggesting that women may be advantaged in asylum proceedings, a focus on gender is still needed in the South African context. While there are undoubtedly problematic elements of the 1998 Refugees Act warranting its revision, the addition of gender as an additional category under the refugee definition, as proposed by the recent Refugees Amendment …


No Black Names On The Letterhead? Efficient Discrimination And The South African Legal Profession, Lisa R. Pruitt Jan 2002

No Black Names On The Letterhead? Efficient Discrimination And The South African Legal Profession, Lisa R. Pruitt

Michigan Journal of International Law

Although there have long been black lawyers in South Africa, during apartheid only a handful joined the ranks of the country's large commercial firms. Now, in the post-apartheid period, these firms are keenly aware of a range of economic and political incentives to hire black attorneys, and most are doing so at a record pace. Very few black attorneys, however, are enduring the path to partnership in these firms. Based on more than seventy-five interviews conducted in South Africa in 1999 and 2000, this Article both documents and critically examines the reasons for black attrition. While firms' incentives to integrate …


Apartheid As A Crime Against Humanity: A Submission To The South African Truth And Reconciliation Commission, Ronald C. Slye Jan 1999

Apartheid As A Crime Against Humanity: A Submission To The South African Truth And Reconciliation Commission, Ronald C. Slye

Michigan Journal of International Law

The question of whether apartheid is a crime against humanity might seem an odd one for many people living outside South Africa-and indeed for the vast majority of people living inside South Africa. With the recent demise of legalized apartheid in South Africa, one might ask if apartheid's status under international law has any contemporary relevance beyond a small group of legal academics. The status of apartheid under international law-in particular whether apartheid constitutes a crime against humanity-is a question that the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission ("TRC") was obligated to address in its final report.


South Africa: Using The Law To Establish And Maintain A Pigmentocracy, Rex S. Heinke Mar 1979

South Africa: Using The Law To Establish And Maintain A Pigmentocracy, Rex S. Heinke

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Human Rights and the South African Legal Order by John Dugard