Making rights real
More than 16 years since the advent of a new political dispensation in South Africa, poverty and inequality continue to threaten the stability of the country and the consolidation of democracy.
Large sections of the population are still being excluded from full participation in the economy and society despite the fact that South Africa’s 1996 Constitution and Bill of Rights seek to correct the legacy of colonialism and apartheid.
The Faculty of Law supports the Constitutional ideal of using the legal system to achieve the required transformation. It has embarked on an initiative to promote greater socio-economic justice through law.
Prof Sandra Liebenberg, a co-director of the project, explains: “Traditionally, the law has served to maintain the status quo. But South Africa’s Constitution contains rights and mechanisms intended to address such issues as poverty and inequality. This means the legal system has to change to help transform the country.”
The project has a long but descriptive name: Combating Poverty, Homelessness and Socio-Economic Vulnerability under the Constitution. Its aims to do this in three ways:
- Training a new generation of lawyers equipped to use the law to help people realise their socio economic rights
- Doing relevant research about how the law can be used more effectively to empower disadvantaged citizens
- Augmenting the assistance provided to marginalised communities by the Stellenbosch University Legal Aid Clinic
The project concentrates mainly on the rights and institutional mechanisms created under the Constitution. However, research is also being done on how comparative law and international norms and standards can be invoked to respond to developmental challenges being faced elsewhere in Africa.
Training
Despite some progress, black people, women and individuals with disabilities remain underrepresented in legal practice, the judiciary and the legal academy. The project seeks to challenge this by equipping lawyers with postgraduate qualifications targeted at overcoming socio-economic disadvantage through law.
“There is a real need for specialists who can take the law and use it in ways that promote human development,” says Prof Liebenberg, who holds the HF Oppenheimer Chair in Human Rights.
Up to 30 postgraduate students can be accommodated each year. The goal is to attract individuals from diverse backgrounds, with an emphasis on disadvantaged groups.
Research
Senior faculty members are doing targeted research in the following areas related to this project:
- Socio-economic rights
- Transformative property law and legal theory
- Land reform and security of tenure
- Legal and Constitutional interpretation
- Equality, redress and poverty relief
- Administrative justice
Consolidating and deepening democracy
“The idea is for our academic research to influence the legal community, the courts and the government to see the law differently,” says Prof AJ van der Walt, who holds the South African Research Chair in Property Law at SU. He is a co-director of the project.
Community outreach
The Stellenbosch University Legal Aid Clinic has served disadvantaged communities in and around Stellenbosch, Ceres, Klapmuts and Franschhoek for a number of years. It has worked on cases involving evictions from land and housing, debt relief, family violence and access to social grants.
Gustav Muller, project manager, says the overall impact of the Faculty of Law’s strategic project will be a lasting one. “Some of our graduates will use the skills they have acquired through this project to litigate in a more substantive way. Others might go into government jobs, where they can influence policy. And some will become academics and pass on their insights to future generations.”