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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.
The first constitution was enacted by the South Africa Act 1909, the longest-lasting to date. Since 1961, the constitutions have promulgated a republican form of government. Since 1997, the Constitution has been amended by eighteen amendments. The Constitution is formally entitled the "Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996."
South Africa's legal system is founded on constitutional supremacy, which means that all laws and actions by the state must comply with the Constitution. The Constitution is the highest law and includes a comprehensive Bill of Rights that protects the civil, political, and socio-economic rights of all individuals.
Countries (in pink) which share the mixed South African legal system. South Africa has a 'hybrid' or 'mixed' legal system, [1] 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 ...
The Republic of South Africa Constitution Bill was introduced in January 1961. It came into force on 31 May 1961; 31 May was a significant day in South African history, being both the day in 1902 on which the Treaty of Vereeniging was signed, ending the Second Anglo-Boer War, and the day in 1910 on which the Union of South Africa came into being.
The Constitutional Court of South Africa is the supreme constitutional court established by the Constitution of South Africa, and is the apex court in the South African judicial system, with general jurisdiction. The Court was first established by the Interim Constitution of 1993, and its first session began in February 1995.
The Interpretation Act [4] defines it as "any law, proclamation, ordinance, Act of Parliament or other enactment having the force of law." [5] The Constitution of South Africa, which has the force of supreme law, [5] and as such sets the standards and requirements for the construction and construal of statutes, also provides a definition of ...
Chapter Two of the Constitution of South Africa contains the Bill of Rights, a human rights charter that protects the civil, political and socio-economic rights of all people in South Africa. The rights in the Bill apply to all law, including the common law , and bind all branches of the government, including the national executive, Parliament ...