Word: legalism
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Prior to the high court's ruling this summer, such a suit would have seemed frivolous and hopeless. But it is a measure of how far we've come--or, more accurately, how far backwards we've slid--that such ridiculous legal action could now stand a reasonable chance of success...
...success has spawned a network of allied organizations. Among them: the Pretoria-based Lawyers for Human Rights, which presses private law firms to take public-interest cases; the Black Lawyers' Association and its offshoot the Legal Education Center in Johannesburg; and the Institute for Applied Legal Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand. All participate in a thriving exchange of students and professors between the U.S. and South Africa. Says John Dugard, head of the Institute for Applied Legal Studies: "These days, even high-court judges are making study trips to the U.S. Our legal education system is looking more...
...even those American legal scholars who were instrumental in helping create the South African legal-aid programs do not see them alone as an effective antidote to apartheid. Last week more than 200 black activists took another approach by opening what they referred to as a "defiance campaign." They marched to eight whites-only hospitals, where they demanded and received treatment. Greenberg, now a professor and dean at Columbia University, believes a wholesale change in the country's constitution is needed to eliminate white domination. Judges in South Africa do not have the power to strike down laws as unconstitutional...
Antiapartheid activists are convinced that the increase in legal challenges has changed public perceptions and laid a basis for the law commission's extraordinary working paper. The final report will be presented to Parliament early next year and, while there is no likelihood that the government will embrace the paper, the debate will give new legitimacy to civil rights workers, who are too often seen as dangerous leftists in South Africa. State Judge Jack Etheridge of Atlanta, who recently spent seven months in Johannesburg, insists that the best counsel is to "test the government"in court. As the legal activists...
Drawing upon U.S. help and experience, local legal activists are turning to the courts to help crack open the complex system of racial discrimination...