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1. The South African Legal System
Law is a social science.
South African Law is not codified: recorded in one comprehensive piece of legislation.
Origin:
• Indigenous legal systems applied at the southernmost tip of Africa before 1652.
• Jan van Riebeeck arrives in Cape Town in 1652 and the adoption of Roman-Dutch
law as a legal system to the Cape.
1.1 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE LAW
• Unlike most European continental legal systems, SA law is not codified:
o It is drawn from various authoritative sources
o Such as statutes (legislation) and decided cases
o Occasionally also Roman and Roman-Dutch law.
Roman Law
• 735BC to AD658
• The Law of the Twelve Tables of 449BC were the cornerstone of the future
development of Roman Law
• Attempts to codify the law led to the Corpius Iuris Civilis (body or civil law) which is
still the primary authoritative source or Roman Law.
Roman-Dutch Law
• Roman Law was revised in the Netherlands during the 15 th and 16th centuries and
became mixed with the existing Dutch customary law.
• Some great Roman-Dutch Jurists:
o Hugo de Groot “Father of Roman-Dutch Law”
o Johannes Voet
o Dionysius Godefridus van der Keesel
o Johannes van der Linden
English Law
• After 1814, English Law began to seep into the existing Roman-Dutch system:
o A jury was introduced
o New legislation e.g. criminal often drew on English law
o A number of statutes in existence today are squarely based on English
legislation e.g. Bills of Exchange Act.
1.2 SOURCES OF LAW IN SOUTH AFRICA
• Some are authoritative: courts are bound by authoritative sources
• Others have merely persuasive authority: serves to convince a court to apply or
interpret a rule in a particular way.
Corpus Iuris Civilis: codification of Roman law that is a primary authoritative source on
which South African courts draw when reverting to Roman Law to solve a legal problem.
, Statute law or legislation
• The most important source of law
• Can be explained as the making of law by a competent authority
• To be found in: Statues, Proclamations, Regulations, By Laws.
• The most important piece of legislation:
o The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, Act 108 or 1996.
The order in which SA law is consulted:
Customary law
• Does not consist of written rules but develops from the habits of the community
and is carried down from generation to generation
• A customary rule will be recognized as a legal rule when:
o It must be reasonable
o It must have existed for a long time
o It must be generally recognized and observed by the community
o It must be certain and clear
Judgments of the Courts
• An authoritative source of law known as case law
• Traditionally divided into superior and lower courts
• More important judgments are reported
The old authorities
• This body of law comprises the common law, i.e. the works of the old writers
referred to above.
Foreign Law
• A judge will to the law of other modern countries if nothing can be found in any of
the above sources
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