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Full-Text Articles in Law
Democracy And Defections, Madhav Khosla, Milan Vaishnav
Democracy And Defections, Madhav Khosla, Milan Vaishnav
Faculty Scholarship
Within comparative constitutional law, there is an emerging consensus that political fragmentation has weakened political parties and hindered the functioning of legislative bodies. This article examines legal efforts to curb fragmentation in parliamentary systems by prohibiting floor crossing, or “defections” — a constitutional approach that concentrates power within party leaders. It conducts a detailed case study of India, exploring what is arguably the most exten¬sive experiment in anti-defection law and its impact on accountability and representation. The article goes on to analyze similar laws in Israel and South Africa, highlighting the challenges of self-regulation. After evaluating the limitations of narrow …
From Parliamentary To Judicial Supremacy: Reflections In Honour Of The Constitutionalism Of Justice Moseneke, Peter G. Danchin
From Parliamentary To Judicial Supremacy: Reflections In Honour Of The Constitutionalism Of Justice Moseneke, Peter G. Danchin
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Imagining Equity And Inclusion: South Africa's International Economic Politics And Reflections On The Writings Of Justice Dikgang Moseneke, Erika George
Faculty Scholarship
In honour of Justice Dikgang Moseneke, this essay takes up his invitation to imagine an ethos consistent with South African Constitutionalism, one which could promote economic justice. This essay explores how the tools of international economic law as utilised by South Africa could serve as a means of transformation to advance the end of a more inclusive economic globalisation. South Africa's trade policies and participation in international business and human rights policy initiatives are offered as illustrations of a shift towards asserting interests aligned with the country's constitutional economic justice commitments. First, emphasising Justice Moseneke's writings outside of his rulings …
The Struggle For The Rule Of Law In South Africa (Symposium: Twenty Years Of South African Constitutionalism: Constitutional Rights, Judicial Independence And The Transition To Democracy), Stephen J. Ellmann
Articles & Chapters
No abstract provided.
(Anti)Canonizing Courts, Jamal Greene
(Anti)Canonizing Courts, Jamal Greene
Faculty Scholarship
Within U.S. constitutional culture, courts stand curiously apart from the society in which they sit. Among the many purposes this process of alienation serves is to “neutralize” the cognitive dissonance produced by Americans’ current self-conception and the role our forebears’ social and political culture played in producing historic injustice. The legal culture establishes such dissonance in part by structuring American constitutional argument around anticanonical cases: most especially “Dred Scott v. Sandford,” “Plessy v. Ferguson,” and “Lochner v. New York.” The widely held view that these decisions were “wrong the day they were decided” emphasizes the role of independent courts in …
American School Finance Litigation And The Right To Education In South Africa, Scott R. Bauries
American School Finance Litigation And The Right To Education In South Africa, Scott R. Bauries
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
This paper addresses the South African Constitution's invitation to the Constitutional Court to 'consider foreign law' when interpreting its provisions. Focusing on the education provisions found in section 29 of the Constitution, I make two claims. Firstly, contrary to the developing consensus, American state supreme court jurisprudence in school funding cases makes a poor resource to aid the interpretation of the basic South African right to education, regardless of the quantum of education that the Constitutional Court decides is encompassed by the word 'basic'. Secondly, however, certain aspects of these same American decisions, particularly the space they provide for a …
Demosprudence In Comparative Perspective, Brian E. Ray
Demosprudence In Comparative Perspective, Brian E. Ray
Law Faculty Articles and Essays
This article critically examines the debate over demosprudence. It adopts a comparative - specifically South African - perspective to consider what it means for a court to act demosprudentially and why the practice may have particular value in developing democracies like South Africa. Guinier connects demosprudence to the broader concept of democratic constitutionalism developed by Reva Siegel and Robert Post. Democratic constitutionalism in turn is part of what Jack Balkin describes as "a renaissance of liberal constitutional thought that has emerged in the last five years." This renaissance is characterized by three major themes: constitutional fidelity, democratic constitutionalism, and redemptive …
Proceduralisation's Triumph And Engagement's Promise In Socio-Economic Rights Litigation, Brian E. Ray
Proceduralisation's Triumph And Engagement's Promise In Socio-Economic Rights Litigation, Brian E. Ray
Law Faculty Articles and Essays
Three of the Constitutional Court's socio-economic rights decisions of the 2009 term are the culmination of a strong trend towards the proceduralisation of socio-economic rights that many commentators have argued fails to fulfill their original promise. This triumph of proceduralisation undeniably restricts the direct transformative potential of these rights. But there is another aspect to this trend - an aspect reflected in the Court's emphasis on participatory democracy and the ability of procedural remedies to democratise the rights-enforcement process. This article considers what the triumph of proceduralisation means for future social and economic rights litigation and argues that properly developed …
Political Institutions And Judicial Role In Comparative Constitutional Law, David Landau
Political Institutions And Judicial Role In Comparative Constitutional Law, David Landau
Scholarly Publications
Comparative constitutional law scholarship has largely ignored political institutions. It has therefore failed to realize that radical differences in the configuration of political institutions should bear upon the way courts do their jobs. This Article develops a comparative theory of judicial role that focuses on broad differences in political context, and particularly in party systems, across countries. I use the jurisprudence of the Colombian Constitutional Court (supplemented by briefer studies of the Hungarian and South African Constitutional Courts) to demonstrate how differences in political institutions ought to impact judicial role. Because Colombian parties are unstable and poorly tied to civil …
An Analysis Of South Africa’S Mental Health Legislation, Natalie Latoya Mccrea
An Analysis Of South Africa’S Mental Health Legislation, Natalie Latoya Mccrea
Legal Writing Competition Winners
If one were to measure a society’s health by its historical environment, then something can indeed be said of South Africa. This nation is known for its long abhorrent history with apartheid entrenched with a political and human rights struggle. In 1995, the world witnessed the evisceration of apartheid and the birth of a new democratic South Africa. In light of the struggle endured by a visible portion of the South African population, a question asked is, what about the forgotten and somewhat invisible individuals, those who suffer with mental illness. The purpose of this work is to discuss South …
The Universal Declaration And South African Constitutional Law: A Response To Justice Arthur Chaskalson, Peter E. Quint
The Universal Declaration And South African Constitutional Law: A Response To Justice Arthur Chaskalson, Peter E. Quint
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Balancing Competing Individual Constitutional Rights: Raising Some Questions, Taunya Lovell Banks
Balancing Competing Individual Constitutional Rights: Raising Some Questions, Taunya Lovell Banks
Faculty Scholarship
Despite increasing support for global human rights ..., some scholars and constitutional democracies, like the United States, continue to resist constitutionalizing socio-economic rights. Socio-economic rights, unlike political and civil constitutional rights that usually prohibit government actions, are thought to impose positive obligations on government. As a result, constitutionalizing socio-economic rights raises questions about separation of powers and the competence of courts to decide traditionally legislative and executive matters. ... [W]hen transitional democracies, like South Africa, choose to constitutionalize socio-economic rights, courts inevitably must grapple with their role in the realization of those rights.... Two questions immediately come to mind: (1) …
"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 ... …
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.
Residential Zoning Regulations And The Perpetuation Of Apartheid, Janai S. Nelson
Residential Zoning Regulations And The Perpetuation Of Apartheid, Janai S. Nelson
Faculty Publications
In January of 1996, the South African Parliament ratified the long-awaited Land Reform (Labour Tenants) Bill, which has engendered heated controversy since its inception. For many, the success of the Land Reform Bill portends the economic and political future of South Africa and is a gauge of apartheid's vital signs. Without land, most South Africans would remain in the same impoverished and disenfranchised conditions that they were in under the apartheid regime. With land, however, South Africans have an improved chance to achieve economic equality. Land reform and land use have become particularly crucial issues in light of President Mandela's …
Book Review, G. Marcus Cole
Book Review, G. Marcus Cole
Journal Articles
G. Marcus Cole provides a thorough review of Towards a Post-Apartheid Future: Political & Economic Relations in Southern Africa by Gavin Maasdorp & Alan Whiteside (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992).
Apartheid And The South African Judiciary, Lawrence G. Baxter
Apartheid And The South African Judiciary, Lawrence G. Baxter
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Constitutionalism, Bureaucracy, And Corporatism, Lawrence G. Baxter
Constitutionalism, Bureaucracy, And Corporatism, Lawrence G. Baxter
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.