By Due Process of Law

The South African case of Harris v. (Donges) Minister of the Interior is one familiar to most students of British constitutional law. The case was triggered by the South African governments attempt in the 1950s to disenfranchise non-white voters on the Cape province. It is still referred to as the case which illustrates that as a matter of constitutional doctrine it is not possible for the United Kingdom Parliament to produce a statute which limits the powers of successive Parliaments.The purpose of this book is twofold. First of all it offers a rather fuller picture of the story lying behind the Harris litigation,and the process of British acquisition of and dis-engagement from the government of its white colonies in southern Africa as well as the ensuing emergence and consolidation of apartheid as a system of political and social organisation. Secondly the book attempts to use the South African experience to address broader contemporary British concerns about the nature of our Constitution and the role of the courts and legislature in making the Constitution work. In pursuing this second aim, the author has sought to create a counterweight to the traditional marginalistion of constitutional law and theory within the British polity. The Harris saga conveys better than any episode of British political history the enormous significance of the choices a country makes (or fails to make) when it embarks upon the task of creating or revising its constitutional arrangements. This, then, is a searching re-examination of the fundamentals of constitution-making, written in the light of the British governments commitment to promoting wholesale constitutional reform.

ISBN 1841130494   DEWEY edition DC21 ISBN13 9781841130491 (What's this?)   Pages 456 Publisher Hart Publishing   Volumes 1 Imprint Hart Publishing   Weight (grammes) 890 Format Hardback   Published in Oxford Publication date 01 Jun 1999   Height (mm) 234 Non-book description xxvi, 428 p. ;   Width (mm) 156 Library of Congress 00268799   Spine width (mm) 35 DEWEY 342.41   Academic level Undergraduate, Postgraduate, Professional / Scholarly

		Preface
		Acknowledgments
		Table of Cases
		Table of Statutes
1		The European Colonisation of Southern Africa		1
2		The Boer Wars		26
3		Securing a White Peace		62
4		The Act of Union 1909		99
5		From Autonomy to Independence		132
6		Disenfranchising the 'African'		179
7		Harris v Donges (Minister of the Interior) No. 1: The Immediate Context		226
8		Harris v Donges (Minister of the Interior) No. 1: The Litigation		260
9		Harris v Minister of the Interior No. 2		301
10		Collins v Minister of the Interior		336
11		Constitutionalism, Parliamentary Sovereignty and the Common Law		384
		Bibliography		415
		Index		423

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