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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The Ambivalence of Authority and Secret Lives of Tears: Transracial Child Placements and the Historical Development of South African Law
Author:Zaal, Frederick NoelISNI
Year:1992
Periodical:Journal of Southern African Studies
Volume:18
Issue:2
Period:June
Pages:372-404
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:legal history
adoption
Law, Human Rights and Violence
History and Exploration
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/2637273
Abstract:The aim of this article is to develop a new perspective for analysing the historical development of transracial child placement law in South Africa. Firstly, the importance of the policies and laws of the Dutch East India Company (DEIC) as a starting point and as representative of some major divergences from contemporary Roman-Dutch law, is discussed. Secondly, it is shown that during and after the English colonial period a gradually increasing unfamiliarity with the juristic achievements of the DEIC combined with deepening racial prejudice to produce a loss of formal mechanisms for legal transracial placements. The third significant historical phase dates from 1960 when the first of a series of attempts to minimize the incidence of both informal and legal transracial placements was made. In the last two parts of this article, the latest South African provision, as promulgated on 19 June 1991, is characterized as yet another of these attempts and some arguments in favour of legislation that would promote transracial placements in present-day South Africa are presented. Notes, ref., sum.
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