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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | The promise of Equality Courts |
Author: | Bohler-Muller, Narnia |
Year: | 2006 |
Periodical: | South African Journal on Human Rights |
Volume: | 22 |
Issue: | 3 |
Pages: | 380-404 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | South Africa |
Subjects: | gender inequality equal opportunity social justice ethics legal procedure special courts |
External link: | https://doi.org/10.1080/19962126.2006.11864895 |
Abstract: | The right to equality in s 9 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 has become one of the cornerstones of South African constitutional jurisprudence. For this reason, the Equality Courts created by the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act 4 of 2000 have a vital role to play in the postapartheid legal landscape. These courts show great promise, but to date have not played the pivotal role that they should in developing a more just society, despite the presence of some new and innovative ways of resolving equality disputes. The promise thus remains unfulfilled, whilst, at the very same time, these courts continue to offer hope for a future empty of discrimination and intolerance. This future may be utopian, but that is the nature of justice as we strive to find limits to the violence of law and search for ethical answers to difficult questions. The author supports an ethical interpretation of (gender) equality as an alternative to both formal and substantive equality, and argues for the opening up of public (legal) spaces where enforced silences are broken and voice is given to the stories of others. Notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract] |