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South African Constitutional Law
South African constitutional law is the area of South African law relating to the interpretation and application of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa by the country's courts. All laws of South Africa must conform with the Constitution; any laws inconsistent with the Constitution have no force or effect. Constitutions South Africa is generally considered to have had five constitutional documents since the Union was established in 1910, including the current one. The constitutions in chronological order are: * South Africa Act 1909 * Constitution of South Africa, 1961 (also known as the "Republican Constitution") * Constitution of South Africa, 1983 (also known as the "Tricameral Constitution") * Constitution of South Africa, 1993 (also known as the "Interim Constitution") * Constitution of South Africa, 1996 (also known as the "Final Constitution") The Interim Constitution abolished South Africa's system of parliamentary sovereignty and replaced it with a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South African Law
South Africa has a 'hybrid' or 'mixed' legal system, formed by the interweaving of a number of distinct legal traditions: a civil law system inherited from the Dutch, a common law system inherited from the British, and a customary law system inherited from indigenous Africans (often termed African Customary Law, of which there are many variations depending on the tribal origin). These traditions have had a complex interrelationship, with the English influence most apparent in procedural aspects of the legal system and methods of adjudication, and the Roman-Dutch influence most visible in its substantive private law. As a general rule, South Africa follows English law in both criminal and civil procedure, company law, constitutional law and the law of evidence; while Roman-Dutch common law is followed in the South African contract law, law of delict (tort), law of persons, law of things, family law, etc. With the commencement in 1994 of the interim Constitution, and in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
President Of The Republic Of South Africa And Another V Hugo
President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsidenten'', a 1919 Danish silent film directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer * ''The President'' (1928 film), a German silent drama * ''President'' (1937 film), an Indian film * ''The President'' (1961 film) * ''The Presidents'' (film), a 2005 documentary * ''The President'' (2014 film) * ''The President'' (South Korean TV series), a 2010 South Korean television series * ''The President'' (Palestinian TV series), a 2013 Palestinian reality television show *''The President Show'', a 2017 Comedy Central political satirical parody sitcom * ''Presidents'' (film), a 2021 French film Music *The Presidents (American soul band) *The Presidents of the United States of America (band) or the Presidents, an American alternative rock group *"The President", a song b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sydney Kentridge
Sir Sydney Woolf Kentridge SCOB (born 5 November 1922) is a South African-born lawyer, judge and member of the Bar of England and Wales. He practised law in South Africa and the United Kingdom from the 1940s until his retirement in 2013. In South Africa, he played a leading role in a number of the most significant political trials in the apartheid-era, including the Treason Trial of Nelson Mandela and the 1978 inquest into the death of Steve Biko. Kentridge's wife, Felicia Kentridge, was also a leading anti-apartheid lawyer. Early life and education Kentridge was born in 1922 in Johannesburg, the son of Lithuanian-born Jewish lawyer and politician Morris Kentridge (né Kantrovitch; 1881–1964). Sydney Kentridge attended Johannesburg's King Edward VII School, before studying at the University of Witwatersrand. He graduated in 1942, and served during the Second World War as an intelligence officer in the South African Army in East Africa and Italy. After the war, he atte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
S V Mhlungu
''S v Mhlungu and Others'' is a decision of the Constitutional Court of South Africa in which the court interpreted a transitional provision in the Interim Constitution of South Africa The Interim Constitution was the fundamental law of South Africa from during the first non-racial general election on 27 April 1994 until it was superseded by the final constitution on 4 February 1997. As a transitional constitution it requ ... relating to the handling of criminal cases that were pending when that constitution came into force on 27 April 1994. The ruling, handed down on 8 June 1995, held that such cases were subject to the human rights protections in Chapter 3 of the Interim Constitution despite a clause appearing to exclude them. References * * External links Text of the judgment 1995 in South African case law Constitutional Court of South Africa cases South African criminal case law {{SouthAfrica-case-law-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Judicial Minimalism
Judicial minimalism refers to a philosophy in United States constitutional law that promotes a politically moderate viewpoint such as that of former Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O'Connor. It is often compared to other judicial philosophies such as judicial activism, judicial originalism, and judicial textualism. Judicial minimalism takes its approach from a limited method of decision-making conceived by Edmund Burke. Originally stated in '' Liverpool, New York & Philadelphia Steamship Co. v. Commissioners of Emigration'' (1885), minimalism is one the seven rules of the constitutional avoidance doctrine established in '' Ashwander v. Tennessee Valley Authority'' (1936) that requires that the Supreme Court of the United States to "not 'formulate a rule of constitutional law broader than is required by the precise facts to which it is to be applied. The minimalist viewpoint Minimalists offer very small, case-specific interpretations of Constitutional Law as an alternative to wha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Value System
In ethics and social sciences, value denotes the degree of importance of some thing or action, with the aim of determining which actions are best to do or what way is best to live ( normative ethics), or to describe the significance of different actions. Value systems are proscriptive and prescriptive beliefs; they affect the ethical behavior of a person or are the basis of their intentional activities. Often primary values are strong and secondary values are suitable for changes. What makes an action valuable may in turn depend on the ethical values of the objects it increases, decreases, or alters. An object with "ethic value" may be termed an "ethic or philosophic good" (noun sense). Values can be defined as broad preferences concerning appropriate courses of actions or outcomes. As such, values reflect a person's sense of right and wrong or what "ought" to be. "Equal rights for all", "Excellence deserves admiration", and "People should be treated with respect and dignity" are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carmichele V Minister Of Safety And Security
The Constitutional Court, in ''Carmichele v Minister of Safety and Security and Another (Centre for Applied Legal Studies Intervening)'', an important case in South African criminal, delict and constitutional law, found that the State could be held delictually liable for damages arising out of the unlawful omissions of its servants. ''In casu'', the conduct of the police and a prosecutor had resulted in the release of a person, charged with rape, on his own recognisance. This person had subsequently assaulted the complainant. CR Snyman, for one, has noted the court's emphasis on section 39(2) of the Constitution, which provides that "every court ..must promote the spirit, purport and objects of the Bill of Rights." This, he argues, "may perhaps one day open the way for holding an individual police officer liable for a crime such as culpable homicide flowing from her negligent omission to protect a person from the real possibility of harm."Snyman 61n, recommending a consultation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frank Michelman
Frank Isaac Michelman (born May 26, 1936) is an American legal scholar and the Robert Walmsley University Professor Emeritus at Harvard Law School. Education and career In 1960, Michelman graduated from Harvard Law School. He clerked for Justice William Brennan of the U.S. Supreme Court during the 1961 Term. In 1962, he joined the Harvard Law School faculty. Scholarship Michelman wrote the influential law review article, "Property, Utility and Fairness", (80 '' Harv. L. Rev.'' 1165 (1967)) on the economic reasons for just compensation in the 5th Amendment Takings Clause in the United States Constitution. This article was cited by the majority in its opinion in '' Penn Central v. New York City'', the Supreme Court case that dealt with the authority of a local New York City landmark law that forbade the railroad company from putting up a skyscraper above the historic Grand Central Terminal structure. Michelman's analysis relied on evaluating whether the nuisance costs and v ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rule Of Law
The essence of the rule of law is that all people and institutions within a Body politic, political body are subject to the same laws. This concept is sometimes stated simply as "no one is above the law" or "all are equal before the law". According to ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', it is defined as "the mechanism, process, institution, practice, or norm that supports the equality of all citizens before the law, secures a nonarbitrary form of government, and more generally prevents the arbitrary use of power." Legal scholars have expanded the basic rule of law concept to encompass, first and foremost, a requirement that laws apply equally to everyone. "Formalists" add that the laws must be stable, accessible and clear. More recently, "substantivists" expand the concept to include rights, such as human rights, and compliance with international law. Use of the phrase can be traced to Tudor period, 16th-century Britain. In the following century, Scottish theologian Samuel Rutherfor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Common Law
Common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law primarily developed through judicial decisions rather than statutes. Although common law may incorporate certain statutes, it is largely based on precedent—judicial rulings made in previous similar cases. The presiding judge determines which precedents to apply in deciding each new case. Common law is deeply rooted in Precedent, ''stare decisis'' ("to stand by things decided"), where courts follow precedents established by previous decisions. When a similar case has been resolved, courts typically align their reasoning with the precedent set in that decision. However, in a "case of first impression" with no precedent or clear legislative guidance, judges are empowered to resolve the issue and establish new precedent. The common law, so named because it was common to all the king's courts across England, originated in the practices of the courts of the English kings in the centuries fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur Chaskalson
Arthur Chaskalson SCOB, (24 November 1931 – 1 December 2012) was President of the Constitutional Court of South Africa from 1994 to 2001 and Chief Justice of South Africa from 2001 to 2005. Chaskalson was a member of the defence team in the Rivonia Trial of 1963. Early life and career Born in Johannesburg, Chaskalson was educated at Hilton College and later graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand with a BCom (1952) and LLB Cum Laude (1954). In 1963, Chaskalson, along with Bram Fischer, Joel Joffe, Harry Schwarz, George Bizos, Vernon Berrangé and Harold Hanson, was part of the former President Nelson Mandela's defence team in the Rivonia Trial, which saw Mandela sentenced to life imprisonment. Chaskalson left a very successful legal practice to become a human rights lawyer, helping to establish the Legal Resources Centre, a non-profit organisation modeled after the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund in the United States seeking to use the law to pursue ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Administrative Law In South Africa
South African administrative law is the branch of public law which regulates the legal relations of public authorities, whether with private individuals and organisations or with other public authorities, or better say, in present-day South Africa, which regulates "the activities of bodies that ''exercise public powers or perform public functions'', irrespective of whether those bodies are public authorities in a strict sense." According to the Constitutional Court, administrative law is "an incident of the separation of powers under which the courts regulate and control the exercise of public power by the other branches of government." Weichers defines administrative law as a body of legal rules governing the administration, organisation, powers and functions of administrative authorities. For Baxter, it is a set of common-law principles which promote the effective use of administrative power, protect against misuse, preserve a balance of fairness and maintain the public interes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
