From Limited Government to Social Justice and Development: Progressive Constitutionalism in the Era of Globalisation

While Southern countries have largely failed to bring about a new international economic order, they have been more successful in shaping the international agenda in the field of human rights, from the Convention for the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination to the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and its recent Protocol. In the last two decades many countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia have adopted new constitutions which put a particular emphasis on the principles of non-discrimination, social justice and development and give the newly established constitutional courts an important role in monitoring their implementation. The project analyses to which extent, if any, these changes have affected the contemporary debate on the basic objectives and principles of constitutionalism. In the part focusing on South Africa it will examine the contribution of the South African Constitutional Court to this debate, in particular its reappraisal of the scope and meaning of socio-economic rights.