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Constitutional rationalisation of legislation dealing with traditional justice system

My thesis addresses the question of whether an imposed traditional justice system operating through traditional courts is still relevant in South Africa. I interrogate whether traditional courts are necessary in a constitutional democracy outside of the existing western type courts system. The Const...

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Main Author: Ngema, Phumelele O P
Other Authors: Smythe, Dee
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Public Law 2016
Subjects:
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access_status_str Open Access
author Ngema, Phumelele O P
author2 Smythe, Dee
author_browse Ngema, Phumelele O P
Smythe, Dee
author_facet Smythe, Dee
Ngema, Phumelele O P
author_sort Ngema, Phumelele O P
collection Thesis
description My thesis addresses the question of whether an imposed traditional justice system operating through traditional courts is still relevant in South Africa. I interrogate whether traditional courts are necessary in a constitutional democracy outside of the existing western type courts system. The Constitution, in terms of chapter 12, recognises traditional leaders and enjoins government to enact national legislation that provides for the role of traditional leadership at a local level. As a unitary democratic state with diverse cultures, the Constitution also acknowledges and grounds diversity which could be interpreted as permitting legal pluralism. I argue that the Constitution envisages recognition and application of the indigenous system within the existing courts of law and subject to the Constitution. Traditional leaders must be recognised in line with the injunction that customary law must be developed and applied by courts. Any other different construction on how traditional courts may be rationalised promotes the interest of traditional leaders and creates an unstable pluralist legal system enabling inequality and discrimination contrary to constitutional imperatives.
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:34:32.198Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2016
publishDateRange 2016
publishDateSort 2016
publisher Department of Public Law
publisherStr Department of Public Law
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spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/18616 Constitutional rationalisation of legislation dealing with traditional justice system Ngema, Phumelele O P Smythe, Dee Constitutional Law Traditonal Justice My thesis addresses the question of whether an imposed traditional justice system operating through traditional courts is still relevant in South Africa. I interrogate whether traditional courts are necessary in a constitutional democracy outside of the existing western type courts system. The Constitution, in terms of chapter 12, recognises traditional leaders and enjoins government to enact national legislation that provides for the role of traditional leadership at a local level. As a unitary democratic state with diverse cultures, the Constitution also acknowledges and grounds diversity which could be interpreted as permitting legal pluralism. I argue that the Constitution envisages recognition and application of the indigenous system within the existing courts of law and subject to the Constitution. Traditional leaders must be recognised in line with the injunction that customary law must be developed and applied by courts. Any other different construction on how traditional courts may be rationalised promotes the interest of traditional leaders and creates an unstable pluralist legal system enabling inequality and discrimination contrary to constitutional imperatives. 2016-04-05T11:46:36Z 2016-04-05T11:46:36Z 2014 Master Thesis Masters LLM http://hdl.handle.net/11427/18616 eng application/pdf Department of Public Law Faculty of Law University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Constitutional Law
Traditonal Justice
Ngema, Phumelele O P
Constitutional rationalisation of legislation dealing with traditional justice system
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Constitutional rationalisation of legislation dealing with traditional justice system
title_full Constitutional rationalisation of legislation dealing with traditional justice system
title_fullStr Constitutional rationalisation of legislation dealing with traditional justice system
title_full_unstemmed Constitutional rationalisation of legislation dealing with traditional justice system
title_short Constitutional rationalisation of legislation dealing with traditional justice system
title_sort constitutional rationalisation of legislation dealing with traditional justice system
topic Constitutional Law
Traditonal Justice
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/18616
work_keys_str_mv AT ngemaphumeleleop constitutionalrationalisationoflegislationdealingwithtraditionaljusticesystem