Constitutionalising Equality: The South African Experience

Abstract

Against the backdrop of the proliferation of Bills of Rights, this article seeks to address the conceptual and practical problems in constitutionalising equality. Using South Africa where the constitutional equality guarantee is at the heart of South Africa's nascent democracy, this article analyses how the challenges were met in the South African drafting process and have been developed/problematised through subsequent case law. The article aims to draw attention to the complexities in constitutionalising equality and drawing from the South African experience, the article seeks further to contribute to and inform debates in jurisdictions which have or are in the process of protecting equality via a Bill of Rights. The article is supported in its conclusions by a series of semi-structured interviews.