1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910155151703321

Autore

Fowkes James <1984->

Titolo

Building the constitution : the practice of constitutional interpretation in post-apartheid South Africa / / James Fowkes [[electronic resource]]

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge : , : Cambridge University Press, , 2016

ISBN

1-316-86687-4

1-316-86795-1

1-316-86813-3

1-316-40385-8

1-316-86831-1

1-316-86849-4

1-316-86903-2

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xxi, 392 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Collana

Cambridge studies in constitutional law

Classificazione

LAW018000

Disciplina

342.68

Soggetti

Constitutional courts - South Africa

Constitutional law - South Africa

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 28 Feb 2017).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Taking reality (legally) seriously -- Voting rights, politics, and trust -- The role of the court : standard conceptions -- The role of the court : constitution-building -- LGBTI equality -- Democracy -- Socio-economic rights -- Equality, eviction and engagement.

Sommario/riassunto

This revisionary perspective on South Africa's celebrated Constitutional Court draws on historical and empirical sources alongside conventional legal analysis to show how support from the African National Congress government and other political actors has underpinned the Court's landmark cases, which are often applauded too narrowly as merely judicial achievements. Standard accounts see the Court as overseer of a negotiated constitutional compromise and as the looked-to guardian of that constitution against the rising threat of the ANC. However, in reality South African successes have been built on broader and more admirable constitutional politics to a degree no previous account has described or acknowledged. The Court has responded to this context with a substantially consistent but widely misunderstood pattern of



deference and intervention. Although a work in progress, this institutional self-understanding represents a powerful effort by an emerging court, as one constitutionally serious actor among others, to build a constitution.