The Politics of Judicial Review in South Africa

South Africa’s turn to liberal constitutionalism has attracted wide interest from comparative politics scholars.  To date, however, there has been little serious scholarly work done on the politics of adjudication in South Africa.  This project fills that gap by exploring the political constraints under which the first South African Constitutional Court operated from 1995-2005.  In particular, it investigates how the Court was able to negotiate those constraints while remaining faithful to law.  In so doing, the project draws on a rich tradition of North American political science and legal scholarship and applies this body of knowledge to South Africa for the first time.