Access to justice in South Africa

Abstract

Against the backdrop of the legacy of colonial and apartheid (colonial-apartheid) rule, and the paradox of the remarkable transformation of the law but the persistence of socio-economic inequality and exclusion, this chapter offers a critical, decoloniality-oriented appraisal of the post-apartheid access to justice record. It focuses on two key domains in relation to access to justice – direct access to the Constitutional Court, and customary law. Direct access is the arena in which Constitutional Court judges have the most direct power to advance access to justice, and customary law impacts the majority of African South Africans and has critical implications for the most marginalized South Africans – African rural women. Concluding that there is still far to go on South Africa’s decolonial journey, this chapter nonetheless highlights progressive aspects of and hopeful developments regarding the post-apartheid access to justice story.

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