2 - History and Background
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 July 2009
Summary
I came here because of my deep interest and affection for a land settled by the Dutch in the mid-seventeenth century, then taken over by the British, and at last independent; a land in which the native inhabitants were at first subdued, but relations with whom remain a problem to this day; a land which defined itself on a hostile frontier; a land which has tamed rich natural resources through the energetic application of modern technology; a land which once imported slaves, and now must struggle to wipe out the last traces of that former bondage. I refer of course to the United States of America.
Senator Robert F. Kennedy, University of Cape Town, South Africa, June 6, 1966During constitutional negotiations in the early 1990's, South African communist party leader Joe Slovo broke the deadlock between the predominantly white National Party and the opposition. The Constitutional Court, however, subsequently rejected the Constitutional Assembly's proposed constitution. Few would have thought that the communist party would supply statesmen-like compromises whereas the Court would appear obstructionist. This is only one example of the twists and turns leading to South Africa's 1996 Constitution.
This chapter focuses on South Africa's transition from apartheid to democracy, and on the birth of the United States — the world's oldest constitutional democracy. Further, this chapter compares the South African Constitutional Court's structure with that of the U.S. Supreme Court.
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- Constitutional Rights in Two WorldsSouth Africa and the United States, pp. 16 - 51Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009