Download or read book Understanding South Africa s Transitional Bill of Rights written by Lourens Marthinus Du Plessis and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: CONTENTS.
Download or read book How Constitutions Change written by Dawn Oliver and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2011-08-09 with total page 550 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This set of essays explores how constitutions change and are changed in a number of countries, and how the 'constitution' of the EU changes and is changed. For a range of reasons, including internal and external pressures, the constitutional arrangements in many countries are changing. Constitutional change may be formal, involving amendments to the texts of Constitutions or the passage of legislation of a clearly constitutional kind, or informal and organic, as where court decisions affect the operation of the system of government, or where new administrative and other arrangements (eg agencification) affect or articulate or alter the operation of the constitution of the country, without the need to resort to formal change. The countries in this study include, from the EU, a common law country, a Nordic one, a former communist state, several civil law systems, parliamentary systems and a hybrid one (France). Chapters on non EU countries include two on developing countries (India and South Africa), two on common law countries without entrenched written constitutions (Israel and New Zealand), a presidential system (the USA) and three federal ones (Switzerland, the USA and Canada). In the last two chapters the editors conduct a detailed comparative analysis of the jurisdiction-based chapters and explore the question whether any overarching theory or theories about constitutional change in liberal democracies emerge from the study.
Download or read book Constitutionalism and Transitional Justice in South Africa written by Andrea Lollini and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2011 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the last fifteen years, the South African postapartheid Transitional Amnesty Process – implemented by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) – has been extensively analyzed by scholars and commentators from around the world and from almost every discipline of human sciences. Lawyers, historians, anthropologists and sociologists as well as political scientists have tried to understand, describe and comment on the ‘shocking’ South African political decision to give amnesty to all who fully disclosed their politically motivated crimes committed during the apartheid era. Investigating the postapartheid transition in South Africa from a multidisciplinary perspective involving constitutional law, criminal law, history and political science, this book explores the overlapping of the postapartheid constitution-making process and the Amnesty Process for political violence under apartheid and shows that both processes represent important innovations in terms of constitutional law and transitional justice systems. Both processes contain mechanisms that encourage the constitution of the unity of the political body while ensuring future solidity and stability. From this perspective, the book deals with the importance of several concepts such as truth about the past, publicly shared memory, unity of the political body and public confession.
Download or read book The Politics of Principle written by Theunis Roux and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-03-28 with total page 451 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Uses a single-country case study to enrich research on the role of constitutional courts in new democracies.
Download or read book Judiciaries in Comparative Perspective written by H. P. Lee and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2011-08-11 with total page 625 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An independent and impartial judiciary is fundamental to the existence and operation of a liberal democracy. Focussing on Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States, this comparative 2011 study explores four major issues affecting the judicial institution. These issues relate to the appointment and discipline of judges; judges and freedom of speech; the performance of non-judicial functions by judges; and judicial bias and recusal, and each is set within the context of the importance of maintaining public confidence in the judiciary. The essays highlight important episodes or controversies affecting members of the judiciary to illustrate relevant principles.
Download or read book The Politics of Transition written by Richard Spitz and published by Witwatersrand University Press Publications. This book was released on 2000 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the early 1990s, South Africans kept a close eye on the media coverage of South Africa's negotiated transition to democracy. Likened to a soap opera by some, the negotiations featured violent interlopers, dramatic walkouts, alliances and, somehow, a fortunate conclusion in the form of the Interim Constitution and Bill of Rights. The importance of the negotiating process and the Interim Constitution itself should not be underestimated, however, in relation to their longer-term influence over the form of democracy currently enjoyed in South Africa. In this brave publication, Spitz and Chaskalson examine the politics behind the Kempton Park negotiations and the Interim Constitution, and the influence that these have had on the subsequent consolidation of a South African democracy.
Download or read book Judicial Review of Legislation written by Gerhard van der Schyff and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2010-06-16 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Constitutionalism is the permanent quest to control state power, of which the judicial review of legislation is a prime example. Although the judicial review of legislation is increasingly common in modern societies, it is not a finished project. This device still raises questions as to whether judicial review is justified, and how it may be structured. Yet, judicial review’s justification and its scope are seldom addressed in the same study, thereby making for an inconvenient divorce of these two related avenues of study. To narrow the divide, the object of this work is quite straightforward. Namely, is the idea of judicial review defensible, and what influences its design and scope? This book addresses these matters by comparing the judicial review of legislation in the United Kingdom (the Human Rights Act of 1998), the Netherlands (the Halsema Proposal of 2002) and the Constitution of South Africa of 1996. These systems present valuable material to study the issues raised by judicial review. The Netherlands is of particular interest as its Constitution still prohibits the constitutional review of acts of parliament, while allowing treaty review of such acts. The Halsema Proposal wants to even out this difference by allowing the courts also to apply constitutional norms to legislation and not only to international norms. The Human Rights Act and the South African Constitution also present interesting questions that will make their study worthwhile. One can think of the issue of dialogue between the legislature and the judiciary. This topic enjoys increased attention in the United Kingdom but is somewhat underexplored in South African thought on judicial review. These and similar issues are studied in each of the three systems, to not only gain a better understanding of the systems as such, but also of judicial review in general.
Download or read book Engaging with Foreign Law written by Basil S Markesinis and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2009-03-30 with total page 474 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a developed theory of how national lawyers can approach, understand, and make use of foreign law. Its theme is pursued through a set of detailed essays which look at the courts as well as business practice and, with the help of statistics, demonstrate what type of academic work has any impact on the 'real' world. Engaging with Foreign Law thus aims to carve out a new niche for comparative law in this era of globalisation, and may also be the only book which deals in some depth with both private and public law in countries such as England, Germany, France, South Africa, and the United States.
Download or read book Lawfare and Judicial Legitimacy written by Kate Dent and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-07-28 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lawfare is a complex and evolving concept with many permutations. It is a term that is used to describe both a judicialisation of politics where the Constitutional Court is called upon to uphold constitutional responsibilities, compensating for institutional failures in the broader democratic space, and instances where there is abuse of the legal process to escape accountability. When the court is dragged into politics, it forces an examination of the legitimate scope of judicial review. This book explains how judicialisation of politics leads to the politicisation of adjudication and further weaponisation of the law. Exploring the judicial-political dynamics of South Africa from 2009 onwards, the work traces the consequences of the judicialisation of politics for institutional resilience and broader constitutional stability. Through an in-depth study of judicial legitimacy, the book seeks to provide an overarching theoretical justification for the dangers that inhere in lawfare. It analyses the potential costs of both judicial statesmanship and strategies of deference and avoidance when trying to navigate the Court safely through the era of lawfare. South Africa offers an interesting crucible within which to observe an unfolding global trend. Strengthened by its comparative focus, the implications of lawfare presented in this book transcend the South African context and are applicable to other jurisdictions in the world. The book will be of interest to researchers, academics and practitioners working in the areas of Constitutional Law and Politics.
Download or read book European and US Constitutionalism written by Georg Nolte and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2005-09-29 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: European constitutionalism is not merely an intra-European phenomenon but it can also be compared to other major forms of constitutionalism. Over the past decade or so issues have emerged which seem to indicate that European constitutional theory and practice is becoming aware that it has developed certain rules and possesses certain characteristics which distinguish it from US constitutionalism and vice versa. This book explores whether such differences can be found in the five areas of 'freedom of speech', 'human dignity', 'duty to protect', 'adjudication' and 'democracy and international influences'. The authors of this book are constitutional scholars from Europe and the United States as well as from other constitutional states, such as Canada, Israel, Japan, Peru and South Africa.
Download or read book Human Rights and the Private Sphere Vol 1 written by Jorg Fedtke and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2007 with total page 605 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Part Part I: Introduction -- chapter PART I: INTRODUCTION Human Rights and the Private Sphere - the Scope of the Project -- part Part II: National Jurisdictions European Convention on Human Rights -- chapter 1 Denmark Drittwirkung and Conflicting Rights - Viewed from National and International Perspectives -- chapter 2 England and Wales The Human Rights Act and the Private Sphere -- chapter 3 France Horizontal Application and the Triumph of the European Convention on Human Rights -- chapter 4 Germany Drittwirkung in Germany -- chapter 5 Greece Taking Private Law Seriously in the Application of Constitutional Rights -- chapter 6 India Protection of Human Rights against State and Non-State Action -- chapter 7 Ireland Irish Constitutional Law and Direct Horizontal Effect - A Successful Experiment? -- chapter 8 Israel Human Rights in Private Law - The Israeli Case -- chapter 9 Italy The Protection of Constitutional Rights in the Private Sphere -- chapter 10 New Zealand Taking Human Rights into the Private Sphere -- chapter 11 South Africa From Indirect to Direct Effect in South Africa: a System in Transition -- chapter 12 Spain A Jurisdiction Recognising the Direct Horizontal Application of Human Rights -- chapter 13 The United States and Canada: State Action, Constitutional Rights and Private Actors -- chapter 14 The European Convention on Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights.
Download or read book The Politics of Transition written by Richard Spitz and published by Hart Publishing. This book was released on 2000-07-24 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Historian Spitz and Chaskalson (constitutional law and litigation, U. of the Witwatersrand, South Africa) consulted primary sources and conducted in-depth interviews with some of the central figures to reveal the politics behind the Kempton Park negotiations and the Interim Constitution by which South Africa transitioned to democracy in the early 1990s. They believe the negotiating process and Interim Constitution will have a long-term influence over the form of democracy there. Distributed in the US by ISBS. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Download or read book The Impact of the United Nations Human Rights Treaties on the Domestic Level written by Christof Heyns and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2021-08-04 with total page 656 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The six main United Nations human rights treaties enjoy almost universal ratification today. Almost 80 per cent of the possible ratifications have been made, and every Member State of the UN has ratified at least one of these treaties. The nearly universal acceptance of the treaties on the formal level, however, does not automatically translate into the norms contained in these documents being made a reality in the lives of the billions of people living in these countries. The treaty system is notoriously weak in terms of international enforcement, and there is a general suspicion that it has had little impact at the domestic level. Mechanisms to improve the international enforcement mechanisms of the six main treaties have been a topic of discussion and research for many years, but the domestic impact of the treaties has never been investigated in a systematic and comprehensive manner. This book constitutes the most ambitious attempt so far to establish the impact of the treaties at the domestic level. The following treaties in 20 United Nations Member States are investigated: the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the Convention Against Torture, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. This book reflects the findings of 20 researchers, based in the countries investigated, under the leadership of Professors Christof Heyns and Frans Viljoen of the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, in a study done in co-operation with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The influence of the treaties in each of the 20 countries is investigated in respect of its influence on the continuation, legislation, court cases, policies and practices, and the impact of the treaty system in civil society. In an overview chapter by the study leaders based on a comparison of the available data, common trends and patterns are identified, and recommendations about reforms on the national and international level are made. This is a book that should be read by all those interested in the development of the international human rights system.
Download or read book Diplomacy and Borderlands written by Katharina Coleman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-10-28 with total page 403 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines Africa’s internal and external relations by focusing on three core concepts: orders, diplomacy and borderlands. The contributors examine traditional and non-traditional diplomatic actors, and domestic, regional, continental, and global orders. They argue that African diplomats profoundly shape these orders by situating themselves within in-between-spaces of geographical and functional orders. It is in these borderlands that agency, despite all kinds of constraints, flourishes. Chapters in the book compare domestic orders to regional ones, and then continental African orders to global ones. They deal with a range of functional orders, including development, international trade, human rights, migration, nuclear arms control, peacekeeping, public administration, and territorial change. By focusing on these topics, the volume contributes to a better understanding of African international relations, sharpens analyses of ordering processes in world politics, and adds to our comprehension of how diplomacy shapes orders and vice versa. The studies collected here show a much more nuanced picture of African agency in African and international affairs and suggest that African diplomacy is far more extensive than is often assumed. This book will be of much interest to students of diplomacy studies, African politics and International Relations.
Download or read book Criminal Disenfranchisement in an International Perspective written by Alec C. Ewald and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2009-04-13 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of original essays by leading scholars and advocates offers the first international examination of the nature, causes, and effects of laws regulating voting by people with criminal convictions. In deciding whether prisoners shall retain the right to vote, a country faces vital questions about democratic self-definition and constitutional values - and, increasingly, about the scope of judicial power. Yet in the rich and growing literature on comparative constitutionalism, relatively little attention has been paid to voting rights and election law. This book begins to fill that gap, by showing how constitutional courts in Israel, Canada, South Africa, and Australia, as well as the European Court of Human Rights, have grappled with these policies in the last decade. Chapters analyze partisan politics, political theory, prison administration, and social values, showing that constitutional law is the fruit of political and historical contingency, not just constitutional texts and formal legal doctrine.
Download or read book Chiefs in South Africa written by NA NA and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-09-23 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the ongoing resurgence of traditional power structures in South Africa. Oomen assesses the relation between the changing legal and socio-political position of traditional authority and customary law and what these changes can teach us about the interrelation between law, politics, and culture in the post-modern world.
Download or read book Comparative Constitutional Law written by Tom Ginsburg and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2011-01-01 with total page 681 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This landmark volume of specially commissioned, original contributions by top international scholars organizes the issues and controversies of the rich and rapidly maturing field of comparative constitutional law. Divided into sections on constitutional design and redesign, identity, structure, individual rights and state duties, courts and constitutional interpretation, this comprehensive volume covers over 100 countries as well as a range of approaches to the boundaries of constitutional law. While some chapters reference the text of legal instruments expressly labeled constitutional, others focus on the idea of entrenchment or take a more functional approach. Challenging the current boundaries of the field, the contributors offer diverse perspectives - cultural, historical and institutional - as well as suggestions for future research. A unique and enlightening volume, Comparative Constitutional Law is an essential resource for students and scholars of the subject.
