In the leading South African case of The State v. Makwanyane and Mchunu, Ishmail Mohamed, J., (as he then was) with his characteristic eloquence observed that

“all Constitutions seek to articulate, with differing degrees of intensity and detail, the shared aspirations of a nation; the values which bind its people, and which discipline its government and its national institutions, the basic premises upon which judicial, legislative and executive power is to be wielded; the Constitutional limits and the conditions upon which that power is to be exercised, the national ethos which defines and regulates that exercise, and the moral and ethical direction which the nation has identified for its future” (at para. 262).

It is in this spirit that the Voices of the Youth Project was created. At the dawn of a new South Africa, there will for the first time be a Juvenile Justice system. Child advocates across South Africa have been working in tandem with the South African government to create a workable Juvenile Justice system. In doing so, children's rights activists have sought input from advocates the world over, from philosophers, criminologists, and social workers, from teachers, economists, and volunteers, and, finally, from the children.

The Supreme Court of Ghana, in The Ghana Bar Association v. The Attorney General, has unanimously decided that, even under the 1992 Constitution, High Court and the Court of Appeal have no jurisdiction in chieftaincy matters. Even if this decision itself is correct, it is nevertheless premised on highly questionable legal propositions and dicta which strike at the foundations of several otherwise settled principles and canons of construction.

The year 1992 saw significant reforms to the Botswana labour law and industrial relations system. Before then, as was the case elsewhere in Africa, the Botswana government had adopted highly interventionist policies with respect to industrial relations. The changes introduced in 1992 were aimed at shifting labour relations to the market place. State intervention, though not completely eliminated, has been greatly reduced as a result. The changes in labour law and the industrial relations system have brought to the fore the debate about the nature, content and extent of workers' freedom of association in the country. The changes mean that more than ever before collective bargaining will play a significant role in the determination of wages, terms and conditions of employment.

Marriage as a social institution has been deliberately protectedas a matter of State policy. Such protection manifests itself in a variety of ways, one of which is the subject of this article. In an attempt to protect the sanctity of marriage, a rule evolved under which spouses cannot give evidence against each other in legal proceedings. In the words of that venerable English jurist, Coke, if this were not so “it might be a cause of implacable discord and dissension between the husband and the wife”. The rule shows itself in strange ways both in criminal and civil cases. For example, the law regards spouses as one person and as such they cannot conspire with each other. Although the institution has been on a slippery slope for a long time with the increasing prevalence of “cohabitation” it has shown remarkable resilience and most of the population still partake and support it. The British bequeathed the rules relating to competence of spouses to Botswana some decades ago and these have since been applied in their pristine purity although the legislature left an escape route by which they could be supplemented. It is this route for supplementation which has led to issues that need to be resolved. Some of these are explored in this article, after a brief historical background of the reception of the rules.

The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) was established by the Constitution of Uganda, 1995, and brought into operation by the Judicial Service Act, 1997. This is particularly notable because the role of the Commission is not only to oversee the appointment, discipline and removal of judicial officers but also to provide a link between the judiciary and the public and to provide training for judges. Its major features are as follows.

The Children Statute, 1996, which came into force in August, 1997, makes important changes to die care and treatment of children, that is, persons below the age of 18 years. Section 4 emphasizes the principle mat the child's welfare shall be the paramount consideration and that in addition to all the rights contained in the Statute, a child enjoys all the rights set out in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the OAU Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the African Child “with appropriate modifications to suit the circumstances of Uganda”.

Law No. 97/9 of 10 January, 1997, provides severe punishment for the use of torture by government officials. If the torture results in unintentional death, the punishment is imprisonment for life; if it causes illness or incapacity to work for a period above 30 days, the punishment is 10–20 years imprisonment; if it causes illness or incapacity to work for a period below 30 days, it is 2–5 years imprisonment and a fine of 50,000F CFA to 200,000F CFA.

The applicants were respectively the managing director and editor of the Post newspaper. They published a series of articles in the newspaper in which they criticized the Speaker and the Vice-President for critical comments made about judges of the Supreme Court. Without any form of trial, they were adjudged guilty of gross contempt of the National Assembly and of a breach of parliamentary privilege by the Standing Orders Committee and committed to prison for an indefinite period. They applied to the High Court for a writ of habeas corpus.

The issue raised in this case was whether a video game fell within the meaning of “cinematograph film” as defined by the Copyright Act 98 of 1978. The Act itself had been amended in 1992 with the words “but shall not include a computer programme” being inserted into the definition of “cinematograph film”.

In this case the Namibian Supreme Court made a declaratory order to provide guidance in prosecutions in which an accused might seek to obtain the contents of police dockets. Amongst other things, it stated that in prosecutions before the High Court, an accused (or legal representative) is ordinarily entitled to the information contained in the police docket relating to the case prepared by the prosecution against him/her, including all witness statements. The state is entitled to withhold any information contained in the docket if it satisfied the court on a balance of probabilities that it had reasonable grounds for believing that the disclosure of such information might reasonably impede the ends of justice or otherwise be against the public interest.

The applicant was seeking a declaration that the respondent was the father of her minor child. While the matter was still pending, she sought an order compelling the respondent to submit himself to a blood test to determine whether he could be excluded as the possible father. She submitted that the court's inherent jurisdiction to regulate its own procedure extended to the compulsory ordering of a blood test. The respondent contended that the court lacked the statutory power to make such an order since the Children's Status Act, 1987, section I merely created a presumption of paternity where it was proved that sexual intercourse with the mother had occurred at any time when the child could have been conceived, while section 2 provided that where a party failed to submit to a blood test in paternity proceedings it would be presumed that such refusal was aimed at concealing the truth. He also contended that if such power existed, it contravened sections 11 and 13 of the 1993 Constitution.

The respondent minister had designated for compulsory acquisition land owned by the appellants. Land designated under section 12 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1992, could not be sold, disposed of or leased without the prior written consent of the respondent, but where that consent was refused, the owner could call upon the acquiring authority to acquire the land forthwith, compensation being payable in such circumstances. The appellants argued that the act of designation was unconstitutional as it amounted to the compulsory acquisition of property without compensation.

In November, 1996, the Fifth Meeting of the Commonwealth Ministers Responsible for Women's Affairs recommended that member countries be encouraged to achieve a target of not less than 30 per cent of women in decision-making in the political, public and private sectors by the year 2005. This is an ambitious target for, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the proportion of women involved in politics world-wide declined from 12.1 per cent in 1985 to 11 per cent in 1995. The situation throughout Africa is especially bleak for, as the following table indicates, with the notable exceptions of Mozambique, Seychelles, South Africa, Eritrea and Uganda, most African countries fall well below the world average.