NCJ Number
127429
Journal
International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice Volume: 14 Issue: 1-2 Dated: (Spring/Winter 1990) Pages: 189-199
Date Published
1990
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This article explores the role of the legal system in South Africa in the legitimacy crisis with particular reference to potential change within its political system.
Abstract
It presents a brief overview of South African law and its criminal justice system to demonstrate the different levels of legal social control. The formal legal order derives from the official government law descended from the civil law tradition of continental Europe. There is implementation of law by police agencies with broad discretionary powers, and there is the informal mechanisms of control in the black communities. The current legal situation in South Africa features conflicts between maintenance of the apartheid state and implementation of an autonomous rule of law. The law and criminal justice system is presented as the basis for the inherent illegitimacy of the system as well as a source of the crisis. However, it is the instrument through which the State attempts to prove its legitimacy. Repudiation of the existing legal order and creation of a truly democratic political system would resolve the present legitimacy crisis in South Africa. 41 references