The Politics of Principle : the First South African Constitutional Court, 1995-2005.

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Acknowledgements; Introduction; Part I Problematic, Theory, Methodology; Chapter 1 The Chaskalson Courts achievement; 1.1 Judicial politics: a brief introduction; 1.2 Criteria of success in political terms; 1.3 The Court' s success in political terms; 1.4 The Court' s success in legal terms: four illustrative responses; 1.5 The ideal of adjudication according to law; 1.6 Translating the common elements of the ideal into shared criteria; 1.7 The distinctiveness of the criteria and the justification for this study.

2 A conceptual framework for assessing the performance of constitutional courts2.1 Two forms of constraint; 2.2 Four central cases; 2.3 Judge-driven changes to a court' s position on the matrix; 2.4 Constitutional courts in new and old democracies; 2.5 The success of constitutional courts in interdisciplinary law/politics terms; 3 Operationalising the conceptual framework to explain the Court ́s achievement; 3 .1 The Court ́s starting position on the matrix; 3.1.1 The vertical axis: South African legal-professional culture.

3.1.2 The horizontal axis: the Court ́s relative insulation from political attack3.2 Tracking the Court ́s movement across the matrix; 3.3 Choosing the cases; Part II Context; 4 The political context for judicial review, 1995-2005; 4.1 South Africa ́s pre-democratic tradition of judicial independence; 4.2 The character of the ANC and its commitment to liberal constitutionalism; 4.3 Constitutional provisions affecting the Court ́s independence from political control; 4.3.1 The two-stage constitution-making process; 4.3.2 The judicial appointments process.

4.4 The changing political context for judicial review4.4.1 Racial reconciliation, 1994-1996; 4.4.2 Technocratic centralism, 1997-2005; 4.5 Conclusion; 5 Constraints and opportunities: The law/politics distinction in South African legal-professional culture; 5.1 The received tradition: South African legal-professional culture before 1994; 5.2 The impact of the post-apartheid Constitutions on South African legal-professional culture; 5.2.1 The character of the post-apartheid Constitutions; 5.2.2 The necessarily entailed impact of the post-apartheid Constitutions.

5.2.3 The contingent impact: internal factors5.2.4 The contingent impact: external factors; 5.3 The Chaskalson Courts judicial ethic; Part III Thematic Case Studies; 6 Death, desire and discrimination: the Chaskalson Court between constitutional and positive morality; 6.1 Abolishing the death penalty: S. v. Makwanyane; 6.2 Customary law and the right to equality: Bhe; 6.3 Same-sex marriage: Fourie; 6.4 Identifying the strategy; 7 Social rights; 7.1 Background to the inclusion of social rights in the 1996 Constitution; 7.2 An `agonising ́ start: Soobramoney.

7.3 Choosing the strategy: Grootboom.

Uses a single-country case study to enrich research on the role of constitutional courts in new democracies.

Includes bibliographical references.

English.

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