Category Archives: The Rule of Law

Commencement conundrums of Act 29 of 1999

TL;DR: The failure to understand the commencement rule in section 81 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, puts the rule of law at risk at its most fundamental level, is demonstrated by teasing apart the fantastical … Continue reading

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Drafting breakable law

The art of drafting the impossible Section 8 of the National Health Amendment Act 12 of 2013 requires that the words “Office of Health Standards Compliance” be inserted after the words “Nelson Mandela Museum, Umtata” in Part A of Schedule … Continue reading

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Disappearing Acts, and the rule of law

Unpublished amending Acts and amended Acts In general, publishers of legislation list amending Acts amongst their lists of Acts, but don’t publish their texts, or their Gazette publication details. Nor do they publish amended versions of Acts amended by amending … Continue reading

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Remember the rule of law, Pravin, the rule of law

I see the South African Minister of Finance, Pravin Gordhan, is putting together a tax review committee, ostensibly to tackle things like tax evasion through “profit shifting”, by looking at ways to overhauling the tax policy framework so that modern … Continue reading

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Developing a legal register without legal experts?

The other day, as a legal expert, I offered to take a technical expert in the environmental field through one or other of the posse of South African environmental Acts to demonstrate the difference in a legal register based on … Continue reading

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