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Harksen V Lane
''Harksen v Lane NO and Others'' is an important decision of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, delivered on 7 October 1997. The court dismissed a challenge to the constitutionality of the Insolvency Act, 1936, finding that it was consistent with the right to property and right to equality for the property of a solvent spouse to be attached to the insolvent estate of his or her partner. Justice Richard Goldstone wrote for the majority. Apart from its import in insolvency law, ''Harksen'' is significant because of its test for determining whether a legislative provision is unfairly discriminatory. The court agreed unanimously with the test as proposed by Goldstone, but it nonetheless split five-to-four on the question of whether the Insolvency Act discriminated unfairly against married people. Background The dispute arose from the sequestration of the insolvent estate of Jürgen Harksen, who, at the time of the sequestration, was married out of community of prope ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Constitutional Court Of South Africa
The Constitutional Court of South Africa is a supreme court, 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 South African Interim Constitution, Interim Constitution of 1993, and its first session began in February 1995. It has continued in existence under the Constitution of South Africa, Constitution of 1996. The Court sits in the city of Johannesburg. After initially occupying commercial offices in Braamfontein, it now sits in a purpose-built complex on Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, Constitution Hill. The first court session in the new complex was held in February 2004. Originally the final appellate court for constitutional matters, since the enactment of the Seventeenth Amendment of the Constitution of South Africa, Seventeenth Amendment of the Constitution in 2013, the Constitutional Court has jurisdiction to hear ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sequestration (law)
In law, sequestration is the act of removing, separating, or seizing anything from the possession of its owner under process of law for the benefit of creditors or the state. Etymology The Latin ''sequestrare'', to set aside or surrender, a late use, is derived from sequester, a depositary or trustee, one in whose hands a thing in dispute was placed until the dispute was settled; this was a term of Roman jurisprudence (cf. ''Digest L.'' 16,110). By derivation it must be connected with ''sequi'', to follow; possibly the development in meaning may be follower, attendant, intermediary, hence trustee. In English "sequestered" means merely secluded, withdrawn. England In law, the term "sequestration" has many applications; thus it is applied to the act of a belligerent power which seizes the debts due from its own subject to the enemy power; to a writ directed to persons, "sequestrators," to enter on the property of the defendant and seize the goods. Church of England There are also t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Compulsory Acquisition
Eminent domain (United States, Philippines), land acquisition (India, Malaysia, Singapore), compulsory purchase/acquisition (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom), resumption (Hong Kong, Uganda), resumption/compulsory acquisition (Australia, Barbados, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom), or expropriation (Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Panama, Poland, Portugal, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Serbia) is the power of a state, provincial, or national government to take private property for public use. It does not include the power to take and transfer ownership of private property from one property owner to another private property owner without a valid public purpose. This power can be legislatively delegated by the state to municipalities, government subdivisions, or even to private persons or corporations, when they are authorized by the legislature to exercise the functio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Property Rights
The right to property, or the right to own property (cf. ownership) is often classified as a human right for natural persons regarding their possessions. A general recognition of a right to private property is found more rarely and is typically heavily constrained insofar as property is owned by legal persons (i.e. corporations) and where it is used for production rather than consumption. A right to property is recognised in Article 17 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but it is not recognised in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights or the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The European Convention on Human Rights, in Protocol 1, article 1, acknowledges a right for natural and legal persons to "peaceful enjoyment of his possessions", subject to the "general interest or to secure the payment of taxes." Definition The right to property is one of the most controversial human rights, both in terms of its existence and inte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Expropriation
Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to private assets or to assets owned by lower levels of government (such as municipalities) being transferred to the state. Nationalization contrasts with privatization and with demutualization. When previously nationalized assets are privatized and subsequently returned to public ownership at a later stage, they are said to have undergone renationalization. Industries often subject to nationalization include the commanding heights of the economy – telecommunications, electric power, fossil fuels, railways, airlines, iron ore, media, postal services, banks, and water – though, in many jurisdictions, many such entities have no history of private ownership. Nationalization may occur with or without financial compensation to the former owners. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laurie Ackermann
Lourens Wepener Hugo "Laurie" Ackermann (b 14 January 1934) is a former justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, where he served from 1994 to 2004. Ackermann was born in Pretoria, South Africa and he matriculated from Pretoria Boys High School in 1950. He studied law at Stellenbosch and Oxford University, where he went in 1954 as a Cape Rhodes Scholar. Laurie served on the Lesotho Court of Appeal from 1988 to 1992 and as the Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...n Supreme Court's acting judge of appeal from 1991 to 1992. He is married to Denise and has three children. Ackermann was appointed to the newly formed Constitutional Court in 1994 after his nomination by President Nelson Mandela. He is an honorary fellow of Worcester College, Oxford, hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wim Trengove
Wim Trengove SC is a South African advocate best known for his role in the development of South African Constitutional jurisprudence and his involvement in high-profile political cases. Career Wim Trengove has litigated many of South Africa's most important human rights questions, including arguing for the successful abolition of the death penalty in ''S v Makwanyane'', arguing against discrimination on the basis of HIV status in ''Hoffmann v South African Airways'', arguing for the protection of sex workers' labour rights in ''Kylie v CCMA'', arguing for the restitution of land and mineral rights to groups dispossessed during apartheid in '' Alexkor Ltd v Richtersveld Community,'' and arguing for the roll-out of anti-retroviral treatment for HIV patients in ''Minister of Health v Treatment Action Campaign.'' Trengove also argued numerous constitutional questions in South Africa's Constitutional Court, including the certification of the constitution itself. Trengove also repre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minister Of Justice (South Africa)
The Minister of Justice and Correctional Services is the justice minister in the government of South Africa. He is the political head of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development (DoJCD), the Department of Correctional Services (DCS), and the Office of the Chief Justice. DoJCD is responsible for administrative support to the courts, oversight of the National Prosecuting Authority, the provision of legal services to departments of state, and law reform; and DSC is responsible for prisons and community corrections programmes. , the incumbent is Ronald Lamola, who was appointed to the position by President Cyril Ramaphosa in June 2019. His deputies are John Jeffery, who is responsible for the Justice portfolio, and Inkosi Patekile Holomisa, who is responsible for Correctional Services. History of the portfolio Correctional services was a part of the Justice portfolio until 1990, when extensive prison reforms were announced and a separate department and ministe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
High Court Of South Africa
The High Court of South Africa is a superior court of law in South Africa. It is divided into nine provincial divisions, some of which sit in more than one location. Each High Court division has general jurisdiction over a defined geographical area in which it is situated. The decisions of a division are binding on magistrates' courts within its area of jurisdiction. The High Court has jurisdiction over all matters, but it usually only hears civil matters involving more than 400,000 rand, and serious criminal cases. It also hears any appeals or reviews from magistrates' courts and other lower courts. The court and its divisions are constituted in their current form by the Superior Courts Act, 2013. They replaced the previous separate High Courts, which had in 1997 replaced the provincial and local divisions of the former Supreme Court of South Africa and the supreme courts of the TBVC states ("Bantustans" created by the apartheid government in the 1950s). Important officers in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ian Farlam
Ian Farlam SC is a retired South African judge, who chaired the commission of inquiry into the 2012 Marikana massacre. Early life and education Farlam was born in Cape Town and obtained his LLB degree from the University of Cape Town in 1961. In that year he was also the clerk of Judge Martin Theron.. Career He became a prosecutor and worked at the attorney general's office from 1964 until 1968, first in Grahamstown and then in Cape Town. He joined the Cape Bar in 1968 and was awarded Senior Counsel status at the end of 1981. During 1988, Farlam acted for the first time as a judge in the Orange Free State Provincial Division of the High Court and on 1 October 1993, he was appointed judge of the Cape Provincial Division The Western Cape Division of the High Court of South Africa (previously named the Cape Provincial Division and the Western Cape High Court, and commonly known as the Cape High Court) is a superior court of law with general jurisdiction over th ... o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South African Rand
The South African rand, or simply the rand, ( sign: R; code: ZAR) is the official currency of the Southern African Common Monetary Area: South Africa, Namibia (alongside the Namibian dollar), Lesotho (alongside the Lesotho loti) and Eswatini (alongside the Swazi lilangeni). It is subdivided into 100 cents (sign: "c"). The South African rand is legal tender in the Common Monetary Area member states of Namibia, Lesotho and Eswatini, with these three countries also having their own national currency (the dollar, the loti and the lilangeni respectively) pegged with the rand at parity and still widely accepted as substitutes. The rand was also legal tender in Botswana until 1976, when the pula replaced the rand at par. Etymology The rand takes its name from the Witwatersrand ("white waters' ridge" in English, ''rand'' being the Dutch and Afrikaans word for 'ridge'), the ridge upon which Johannesburg is built and where most of South Africa's gold deposits were found. In Eng ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trustee
Trustee (or the holding of a trusteeship) is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, is a synonym for anyone in a position of trust and so can refer to any individual who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility to transfer the title of ownership to the person named as the new owner, in a trust instrument, called a beneficiary. A trustee can also be a person who is allowed to do certain tasks but not able to gain income, although that is untrue.''Black's Law Dictionary, Fifth Edition'' (1979), p. 1357, . Although in the strictest sense of the term a trustee is the holder of property on behalf of a beneficiary, the more expansive sense encompasses persons who serve, for example, on the board of trustees of an institution that operates for a charity, for the benefit of the general public, or a person in the local government. A trust can be set up either to benefit particular persons, or for any charitable purposes (but not generally for non-charitable ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
