The application of the 1996 Constitution in the private sphere

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Periodical article

Title:	The application of the 1996 Constitution in the private sphere
Authors:	Cheadle, Halton Davis, Dennis
Year:	1997
Periodical:	South African Journal on Human Rights
Volume:	13
Issue:	1
Pages:	44-66
Language:	English
Geographic term:	South Africa
Subjects:	constitutions 1996 private law
External link:	https://doi.org/10.1080/02587203.1997.11834937
Abstract:	Section 8 of the 1996 Constitution of South Africa represents a constitutional mandate to engage in mapping and critique in order to bring South Africa's existing body of law into harmony with the new 'grundnorm' that is the 1996 Constitution. The potential for horizontal application calls into question the private/public divide which previously lay at the centre of the South African legal system. But it does so not by creating a direct, separate constitutional cause of action, but rather by ensuring that the newly created constitutional action must be mediated through common law. The Constitution mandates an exploration of existing legal institutions, an analysis of the disharmony between their reality and the new values and commitments of the Constitution and the consequent attempt to bridge that gulf. The academic disputes and judgments about the application of Chapter 3 of the 1993 interim Constitution, as in Du Plessis v De Klerk, indicate that this will not be an easy task. Notes, ref.