Regional Law

This court, the highest in South Africa on constitutional matters, was born out of the country's first democratic Constitution in 1994. In an acclaimed  building at Constitution Hill, the 11 judges stand guard over the Constitution and protect everyone's human rights. 

The Constitutional Court only makes decisions about issues that have to do with the Constitution. It is also the highest court in the land since its decisions cannot be changed by any other court.

The Department of Justice publishes Acts, Bills, Gazette Notices and finding aids. 

The Land Claims Court was established in 1996.The Land Claims Court specialises in dealing with disputes that arise out of laws that underpin South Africa's land reform initiative. These include the Restitution of Land Rights Act, 1994, the Land Reform (Labour Tenants) Act, 1996 and the Extension of Security of Tenure Act, 1997. The Land Claims Court has the same status as any High Court. Any appeal against a decision of the Land Claims Court lies with the Supreme Court of Appeal, and if appropriate, to the Constitutional Court.

Law, Democracy & Development is the journal of the Faculty of Law at the University of the Western Cape. The first issue appeared in May 1997. The journal set out to build on the proud traditions established by UWC and by the Law Faculty during the struggle for democracy, with many of our staff and alumni having gone on to serve as Ministers of state, as judges of the highest courts and in other key positions in the post-apartheid dispensation.

Open access to full-text article.

Law, Democracy & Development is the journal of the Faculty of Law at the University of the Western Cape. The first issue appeared in May 1997 and two issues per year have been published since then. The journal seeks to build on the proud traditions established by UWC and by the Law Faculty during the struggle for democracy, with many of their staff and alumni having gone on to serve as Ministers of state, judges of the Constitutional and other courts or in other important positions in the post-apartheid dispensation.

Publisher: University of the Western Cape, Faculty of Law.

Access to 1858 Official Journals (Government Gazettes) published between 1960 and 2010, which constitutes 40,134 pages of Gazettes

Direct access to the full version of the 4449 general texts published in the Official Journal between and October 25, 2008

Access to 672 judgments of the Supreme Court and 105 decisions and opinions of the Constitutional Court published between 4 February 1963 and January 3, 2008

The website of the Parliament of South Africa offers free access to Bills, Hansards and some legislation among other relevant parliamentary information.

The PMG website provides access to parliamentary information from South Africa. The website publishes:

• Committee meeting reports & briefing documents
• Requests for your comment on Bills & policy
• Sound recordings of meetings posted same day
• Media briefings & speeches by Ministers
• Up-to-date Bills & Bills Status chart
• Committee & plenary programmes, membership lists
• Searchable MP’s Questions & Replies by Ministers
• Searchable Hansard

Polity is one of the South African websites providing free access to South African legislation, case law, policy documents and analysis.

PER Publishes contributions relevant to the research unit Development in the South African Constitutional State. Constitutional and developmental needs should be kept in mind as the key themes of the journal, which means that contributions on any aspect or discipline of the law will be welcomed if these themes are involved in some way.

The SADC Law Journal, which is the first journal in southern Africa to focus on the status and development of the rule of law in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) from a regional perspective.

The Government of South Africa web portal provides access to bills, acts (1991 - to date; and repealed acts), white and green papers (legislative preparatory works) and parliamentary documents.  

The Labour Court has the same status as a high court. The Labour Court adjudicates matters relating to labour disputes. Appeals are made to the Labour Appeal Court. Follow this link to view the Rules of the Labour Appeal Court and the Rules of the Labour Court

The objects of the South African Law Reform Commission are to do research with reference to all branches of the law in order to make recommendations to Government for the development, improvement, modernisation or reform of the law. The Commission investigates matters appearing on a programme approved by the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development. Reports and other documents published by the Commission are made available on the Commission's website for general information.

The Southern African Legal Information Institute website provides free access to caselaw from all of the superior courts in South Africa, post-1996 legislation, law journals and Law Reform Commission publications.

The Supreme Court of Appeal is based in Bloemfontein in the Free State. Except for the Constitutional Court, it is the highest court in South Africa and it only deals with cases sent to it from the High Court.