"What Should We Expect from a Progressive Equality Jurisprudence? The Case of South Africa" By Kate O'Regan.
Date: Thursday 19 May 2011, 6.00pm, followed by a drinks reception.
Venue: Bentham House, University College London.
South Africa is a society where for most of the twentieth century, government policy was premised on principles that treated people unequally on the grounds of race. Apartheid policy and practice, coupled with South Africa's earlier history of colonial dispossession, has resulted in one of the most unequal societies in the world. It is not surprising then that "the achievement of equality" should be one of the founding principles of the new constitutional order that commenced in 1994. Nor is it surprising that the new Constitution specifically permits measures designed to protect or advance people disadvantaged by unfair discrimination.
Yet the first fifteen years of constitutional democracy in South Africa have not witnessed a dramatic reduction in social inequality. Nor has there been a flood of equality litigation. Is the equality jurisprudence failing? Or are we expecting too much of equality law?
Kate O'Regan is a prominent equality and human rights lawyer. She was a judge on the Constitutional Court of South Africa (1994 - 2009) and was involved in a number of initiatives in building post-apartheid South African society. She is an Honorary Professor at the University of Cape Town. She is a Trustee of The Equal Rights Trust.
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