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Women's Legal Centre
''Women's Legal Centre Trust v President of the Republic of South Africa and Others'' is a 2009 decision of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. The court dismissed an application for direct access lodged by the Women's Legal Centre, which sought an order directing the President and Parliament to pass legislation to provide for the recognition of Muslim marriages. The court did not express a view on the merits of the dispute but instead held that the application did not engage its exclusive jurisdiction in terms of section 167 of the Constitution. Justice Edwin Cameron delivered judgment on behalf of a unanimous court on 22 July 2009. Application The non-profit Women's Legal Centre applied for an order declaring that the President and Parliament had failed to fulfil their constitutional obligation to prepare legislation "providing for the recognition of all Muslim marriages as valid marriages for all purposes in South Africa and regulating the consequences of such reco ... [...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] |
Constitution Of South Africa
The Constitution of South Africa is the supreme law of the Republic of South Africa. It provides the legal foundation for the existence of the republic, it sets out the rights and duties of its citizens, and defines the structure of the Government. The current constitution, the country's fifth, was drawn up by the Parliament elected in 1994 in the South African general election, 1994. It was promulgated by President Nelson Mandela on 18 December 1996 and came into effect on 4 February 1997, replacing the Interim Constitution of 1993. 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 1996, the Constitution has been amended by seventeen amendment acts. The Constitution is formally entitled the "Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996." It was previously also numbered as if it were an Act of Parliament—Act No. 108 of 1996—but, since the p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2009 In South African Case Law
9 (nine) is the natural number following and preceding . Evolution of the Arabic digit In the beginning, various Indians wrote a digit 9 similar in shape to the modern closing question mark without the bottom dot. The Kshatrapa, Andhra and Gupta started curving the bottom vertical line coming up with a -look-alike. The Nagari continued the bottom stroke to make a circle and enclose the 3-look-alike, in much the same way that the sign @ encircles a lowercase ''a''. As time went on, the enclosing circle became bigger and its line continued beyond the circle downwards, as the 3-look-alike became smaller. Soon, all that was left of the 3-look-alike was a squiggle. The Arabs simply connected that squiggle to the downward stroke at the middle and subsequent European change was purely cosmetic. While the shape of the glyph for the digit 9 has an ascender in most modern typefaces, in typefaces with text figures the character usually has a descender, as, for example, in . The mo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hassam V Jacobs
''Hassam v Jacobs NO and Others'', an important case in South African law, was heard in the Constitutional Court on 19 February 2009, with judgment handed down on 15 July. The applicant was a party to a polygamous Muslim marriage, whose husband had died intestate. The Constitutional Court held that precluding the applicant from inheriting unfairly discriminated on the grounds of religion, marital status and gender, and was therefore inconsistent with section 9 of the Constitution. Accordingly, it was held that the applicant could inherit. The ambit of this judgment extended the ruling in ''Daniels v Campbell'' to polygamous Muslim marriages. Facts The question was whether or not the benefits provided by the Intestate Succession Act) and the Maintenance Act accrue to surviving spouses of polygynous Muslim marriages. The objective of the legislation is to ensure that widows receive at least a child's share of their spouse's estates instead of being left precariously dependent on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daniels V Campbell
''Daniels v Campbell NO and Others'', an important case in South African family law and law of succession, was heard in the Constitutional Court on 6 November 2003 and decided on 11 March 2004. The court was unanimous that the constitutional right to equality requires that rights of intestate inheritance and maintenance must be extended to the surviving partners of ''de facto'' monogamous Muslim marriages, even though such marriages are not recognised under the Marriage Act, 1961. In dual opinions written by Justices Albie Sachs and Sandile Ngcobo, a majority of the court held that the Intestate Succession Act, 1987 and Maintenance of Surviving Spouses Act, 1990 must be read to extend such rights. A minority, comprising Justices Dikgang Moseneke and Tholie Madala, disagreed with this approach, arguing that the legislation refers to lawful marriages under the Marriage Act and that the legislation is therefore unconstitutional in its current form. The ambit of this j ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South African Family Law
South African family law is concerned with those legal rules in South Africa which pertain to familial relationships. It may be defined as "that subdivision of material private law which researches, describes and regulates the origin, contents and dissolution of all legal relationships between: (i) husband and wife (including the parties to a civil union); (ii) parents, guardians (and other holders of parental rights and responsibilities) and children; and (iii) relatives related through blood and affinity." Subdivisions There are various branches of family law, among them * the law of engagement; * matrimonial law and the law of civil unions; * matrimonial property law; * the law of divorce; and * the law of parenting. Marriage Marriage is the act by which a marriage relationship is formed, and which defines the relationship created by that act. The act and the relationship are interrelated: The former requires an intention to create the latter, and the consequences o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Western Cape High Court
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 the Western Cape province of South Africa (except for the Murraysburg district which falls within the jurisdiction of the Eastern Cape Division). The division, which sits at Cape Town, consists of 31 judges led by Judge President John Hlophe. History The origins of the Western Cape Division lie in the Supreme Court of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope, which was established on 1 January 1828 as the highest court of the Cape Colony. It was created by the First Charter of Justice, letters patent issued by George IV on 24 August 1827. Upon the creation of the Union of South Africa in 1910, the Supreme Court of the Cape Colony was transformed by the South Africa Act 1909 into the Cape of Good Hope Provincial Division of the new Supreme ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Appeal
In law, an appeal is the process in which cases are reviewed by a higher authority, where parties request a formal change to an official decision. Appeals function both as a process for error correction as well as a process of clarifying and interpreting law. Although appellate courts have existed for thousands of years, common law countries did not incorporate an affirmative right to appeal into their jurisprudence until the 19th century. History Appellate courts and other systems of error correction have existed for many millennia. During the first dynasty of Babylon, Hammurabi and his governors served as the highest appellate courts of the land. Ancient Roman law recognized the right to appeal in the Valerian and Porcian laws since 509 BC. Later it employed a complex hierarchy of appellate courts, where some appeals would be heard by the emperor. Additionally, appellate courts have existed in Japan since at least the Kamakura Shogunate (1185–1333 CE). During this time, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chapter 9 Institutions
Chapter Nine Institutions refer to a group of organisations established in terms of Chapter 9 of the South African Constitution to guard democracy. The institutions are: * the Public Protector * the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) * the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities (CRL Rights Commission) * the Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) * the Auditor-General * the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) * an Independent Authority to Regulate Broadcasting. Though chapter nine calls for a broadcast regulator it does not specifically mandate the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA). Interpretations vary on whether ICASA is a Chapter 9 institution or not. Parliamentary review In October 2006 an ''ad hoc'' parliamentary A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democracy, democratic government, governance of a sovereign state, state (or subordin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
State (polity)
A state is a centralized political organization that imposes and enforces rules over a population within a territory. There is no undisputed definition of a state. One widely used definition comes from the German sociologist Max Weber: a "state" is a polity that maintains a monopoly on the legitimate use of violence, although other definitions are not uncommon.Cudworth et al., 2007: p. 95Salmon, 2008p. 54 Absence of a state does not preclude the existence of a society, such as stateless societies like the Haudenosaunee Confederacy that "do not have either purely or even primarily political institutions or roles". The level of governance of a state, government being considered to form the fundamental apparatus of contemporary states, is used to determine whether it has failed. In a federal union, the term "state" is sometimes used to refer to the federated polities that make up the federation. (Other terms that are used in such federal systems may include “province”, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Supreme Court Of Appeal (South Africa)
The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA), formerly known as the Appellate Division, is an appellate court in South Africa. It is located in Bloemfontein, the "judicial capital" of South Africa. History On the creation of the Union of South Africa from four British colonies in 1910, the supreme courts of the colonies became provincial divisions of the new Supreme Court of South Africa, and the Appellate Division was created as a purely appellate court superior to the provincial divisions. It was the seat of some of the country's most outstanding judges including Innes CJ, Watermeyer CJ, Galgut JA, Wessels CJ and Schreiner JA. In 1994 the Constitutional Court of South Africa was created with jurisdiction superior to the Appellate Division, but it could hear only in constitutional matters. The Appellate Division, therefore, remained the highest court in non-constitutional matters. In 1997 the Appellate Division became the Supreme Court of Appeal and was given constitutional jurisdic ... [...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] |
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