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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
The development of the South African democratic system was not an easy process with the legacies of inequality and apartheid to overcome and a negotiated process that maintained legal continuity with the previous era.
The new Constitution plays a central role in this, itself the result of a negotiated interim constitution (providing for a 5-year government of national unity and non-derogable constitutional principles to be included in the final text) that set the grounds for the elections to a Constitutional Assembly that drafted the final Constitution in 1996. Interestingly, and quite uniquely, the country chose a system of constitutional supremacy (instead of the traditional parliamentary sovereignty) where even the text new constitution and later amendments were subject to the authority of the Constitutional Court, which had to certify that the proposed Constitution meets the principles and arrangements proscribed by the interim constitution as a result of multi-party negotiations.
The end result is a modern constitution that pays particular attention to remedying the inequalities of the past with the inclusion of an entrenched Bill of Rights and justiciable social and economic rights.
I found the book especially interesting as the history of the South African case shows numerous parallels with the Hungarian Constitution, which was also the result of negotiations and provided for strong constitutional review, however the South Africans - despite the strong one-party dominance of the ANC - have managed to restrain from using their majority to overwrite the constitution, unlike the case in Hungary in recent years.
One flaw that was a bit annoying at times is that the book could have been edited better, certain passages of information were repeated numerous times throughout the book, there were a few typos and for some reason the abbreviations introduced in the footnotes were reintroduces again and again in every chapter.
The new Constitution plays a central role in this, itself the result of a negotiated interim constitution (providing for a 5-year government of national unity and non-derogable constitutional principles to be included in the final text) that set the grounds for the elections to a Constitutional Assembly that drafted the final Constitution in 1996. Interestingly, and quite uniquely, the country chose a system of constitutional supremacy (instead of the traditional parliamentary sovereignty) where even the text new constitution and later amendments were subject to the authority of the Constitutional Court, which had to certify that the proposed Constitution meets the principles and arrangements proscribed by the interim constitution as a result of multi-party negotiations.
The end result is a modern constitution that pays particular attention to remedying the inequalities of the past with the inclusion of an entrenched Bill of Rights and justiciable social and economic rights.
I found the book especially interesting as the history of the South African case shows numerous parallels with the Hungarian Constitution, which was also the result of negotiations and provided for strong constitutional review, however the South Africans - despite the strong one-party dominance of the ANC - have managed to restrain from using their majority to overwrite the constitution, unlike the case in Hungary in recent years.
One flaw that was a bit annoying at times is that the book could have been edited better, certain passages of information were repeated numerous times throughout the book, there were a few typos and for some reason the abbreviations introduced in the footnotes were reintroduces again and again in every chapter.