ISSN: 1996-2118
Affiliations: University of KwaZulu-Natal
Source: South African Journal of Criminal Justice, Volume 38 Issue 1, p. 148-164
https://doi.org/10.47348/SACJ/v38/i1a7
None
ISSN: 1996-2118
Affiliations: University of KwaZulu-Natal
Source: South African Journal of Criminal Justice, Volume 38 Issue 1, p. 165-185
https://doi.org/10.47348/SACJ/v38/i1a8
None
ISSN: 1996-2118
Affiliations: BCom DipEd (Melb) MEc (La Trobe) PhD (New England) Professor, International Centre of Nonviolence, Durban University of Technology
Source: South African Journal of Criminal Justice, Volume 37 Issue 3, p. 186-188
https://doi.org/10.47348/SACJ/v38/i1a9
None
ISSN: 2411-7870
Affiliations: BProc LLB LLD. Vice Dean: Law: Research Postgraduate Studies at Internationalisation, University of the Free State
Source: Fundamina, Volume 31 Issue 1, p. 1-29
https://doi.org/10.47348/FUND/v31/i1a1
With the expansion of liberal, constitutional and representative systems, the so-called long nineteenth century (1780–1914) in the United States is regarded as a transformative period in the development of democracy. Whilst voting and party politics have become central to democratic practice, the right to petition, enshrined in the First Amendment to the US Constitution, historically played a pivotal role in American political life. Petitions provided disenfranchised groups, including women, immigrants and African and native Americans with a way to actively engage in political processes reserved for the voting public discourse. Importantly, during this period, petitions were not merely symbolic, but were an active tool for democratic participation that empowered marginalised groups and contributed to the shaping of American democracy. Scholars emphasise the significance of petitioning as a powerful, inclusive form of political engagement, often more accessible than voting, especially when rights were limited. In contrast to today’s focus on voting and party politics, petitioning provided a vital alternative avenue for political participation, bridging the gap between elections. However, the historical importance of this right has been largely forgotten in contemporary political discourse, with recent Supreme Court opinions indicating a lack of understanding regarding its constitutional significance. The disregard for petitioning in modern democracy has contributed to a narrowing of democratic engagement. By revisiting the history of petitioning, this contribution aims to reconsider the historical role of petitioning in democracy in the US, exploring its potential to complement electoral politics and to strengthen participatory democracy in contemporary settings. The justification for this study arises from the growing interdisciplinary interest in petitions and the practice of petitioning across diverse historical and contemporary contexts.
ISSN: 2411-7870
Affiliations: LLB LLM (UP) LLD (UFS). Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Law, Wits University
Source: Fundamina, Volume 31 Issue 1, p. 30-67
https://doi.org/10.47348/FUND/v31/i1a2
Legal scholars have considered the confluence of law, space and sexuality. What is less visible is a focus on the connections between women and apartheid geography. This contribution explores those connections with particular reference to the Group Areas Act 41 of 1950 and argues that the latter made use of racialisation and the control of their movement to use women as spatial markers. Drawing on feminist geography, this contribution unpacks the role of gender in the production of space and the manner in which space is complicit in the constitution of gender to explore the inscription of space on women’s bodies. It then considers the inscription of space on women’s bodies as the producers of populations, which must be understood as “racialised”, to (re)produce segregation. Furthermore, this study considers the role of gender in the production of race and the role of race in the construction of varying iterations of gender in the context of Afrikaner nationalism. By unpacking the concepts of the volk and the volksmoeder, this contribution illustrates how the usurpation of white womanhood and motherhood, as tools of Afrikaner nationalism, were instrumental in the formation of apartheid and its geography. This, in turn, had a devastating impact on black women. This contribution also looks at the manner in which women were affected by apartheid legislation that made their bodies the site of segregatory and apartheid geography. It is argued that women became a primary means by which the Group Areas Act demarcated race. This, together with the manner in which that Act controlled the movement of women, meant that women became the signifiers of space. It is submitted that women were used to (re)produce urban areas, townships and homelands.