Curriculum Guide · Courses

Professor Richard Goldstone

J.D. Seminar 091 (cross-listed) | 3 credit hours

This course will examine constitutional developments in South Africa, including and following upon that country’s transition to a constitutional state in 1994. It will focus mainly on adjudications under the Bill of Rights and the bearing of those adjudications on the wider development of South African law and legal (especially judicial) institutions. Reflective comparison with constitutional law in other countries will be a constant expectation in the course. Topics will include protections of civil liberties, equality and affirmative action, the positive or protective duties of the state (including socioeconomic rights), and the bearing of the Bill of Rights on law governing relations to which the government is not a party (the question of “state action” or “horizontal effect”).

Prerequisite: Constitutional Law I: The Federal System or a basic course on the constitutional law of some country.