To Wonderland Through the Looking-glass: Conceiving a Critical Legal Argument for Contractual Justice in the South African Law of Contract †

The aim of this paper is to identify the possible substructure (looking glass/es) of a critical legal argument for contractual justice (Wonderland) in the South African law of contract. South African contract law still fails, ten years after the constitutional transformation, to reflect the constitutional ideals of freedom, equality and human dignity in an acceptable manner. I argue that this disposition places a question mark over the legitimacy of contract law and marginalizes opportunities for the social change envisaged by the Constitution. The paper explores Duncan Kennedy’s Form and Substance-argument and indicates that the reluctance to accommodate these values may be attributable to the fact that the majority of role-players position themselves on the individualism/rules side of Kennedy’s continuum – a paradigm that perceives the law of contract as a body of positivistic rules to be applied neutrally and regardless of the social or socio-economic distortions its application may generate. In an attempt to move away from this traditional approach, the privileged paradigm is criticised. A typical CLS-approach is followed which employs sociology, psychological jurisprudence and game theory to criticise the law from outside the restrictive realms of law itself. Simultaneously, I attempt to illuminate the argument for a shift (step through the looking glass) to another paradigm. I conclude that our judiciary finds itself in a position similar to that of Plato’s prisoners in the cave and will not reach the point where they apply relevant (constitutional) values directly to contractual disputes. The State is thus responsible for infusing contract law with contractual justice, by implementing legislation to this effect in order to limit the hegemonic consequences of the judiciary’s obsession with freedom of contract and utopian rules, which fail in reality to further the ideal of justice. Paper presented at the Critical Legal Conference, 4 September 2004, London, UK. This paper is dedicated to the memory of the late Judge of Appeal, Mr. Justice P.J. Olivier. The paper is based on research conducted for the thesis in partial fulfilment of the degree LLD in the Faculty of Law at the University of Pretoria under the title ‘A critical legal argument for contractual justice in the South African law of contract.’ The degree supervisor is Professor Karin van Marle in the Department of Legal History, Comparative Law and Jurisprudence. The author wishes to thank the following persons for valuable deliberations and input: Karin van Marle, Graham Bradfield and Anashri Pillay. In addition, the author wishes to acknowledge and thank the University of Cape Town for financially supporting this research. †Paper presented at the Critical Legal Conference, 4 September 2004, London, UK. This paper is dedicated to the memory of the late Judge of Appeal, Mr. Justice P.J. Olivier. The paper is based on research conducted for the thesis in partial fulfilment of the degree LLD in the Faculty of Law at the University of Pretoria under the title ‘A critical legal argument for contractual justice in the South African law of contract.’ The degree supervisor is Professor Karin van Marle in the Department of Legal History, Comparative Law and Jurisprudence. The author wishes to thank the following persons for valuable deliberations and input: Karin van Marle, Graham Bradfield and Anashri Pillay. In addition, the author wishes to acknowledge and thank the University of Cape Town for financially supporting this research. apply relevant (constitutional) values directly to contractual disputes. The State is thus responsible for infusing contract law with contractual justice, by implementing legislation to this effect in order to limit the hegemonic consequences of the judiciary’s obsession with freedom of contract and utopian rules, which fail in reality to further the ideal of justice.     

多学科、兼顾历史与现状、教学相长：南洋研究院华人研究特点与存在问题（2000-2006）

南洋研究院的华侨华人研究体现了多学科、兼顾历史与现状、教学相长的特色。除了经济、历史、政治学(国际关系)等主要学科外,南洋院师生越来越多地借重民族学、宗教学、金融学、人口学、语言学、管理学、图书及版本学等学科理论与方法研究华侨华人。在侧重华侨华人现状研究时,仍继续关注华人史研究。在相关学位课程带动下,硕博生的学位论文研究日益成为南洋院华侨华人研究的重要组成部分。就总体而言,南洋院的华侨华人研究仍呈现创新能力弱、文献单薄、低水平重复等问题,这既是国内文科重量化考核导向的结果,也与研究人员浮躁的学术态度相关。     

性别话语的历史印记与女性意识的当下尴尬

在西方女性主义思潮的冲击和影响下,当代中国女性的生活发生着不同的变化,女性的自我意识在权力话语的遗留和解构权力话语之间艰难成长、摸索前行.对既成的历史事实并深植于现有的社会结构中的中国女性意识的缺憾和不足进行探讨,对呼唤广泛的女性意识的理性觉醒和在差异中求平等、在开放中求自由的女性主义的到来具有重要意义.     

妇联承担政府职能的优势与阻力研究

文章分析了在政府职能转变的过程中,妇联作为党和政府联系妇女群众的桥梁和纽带,对于承接政府转移出的部分公共管理和公共服务职能具有的优势和阻力。其优势为:组织网络健全、与妇女有天然联系、在坚持党的领导下积累了丰富的工作经验、培养了一支专业研究队伍;阻力为:政府没有专门的常设妇女工作机构、人民团体“上宽下窄”的组织结构和多样性社团发展不成熟影响政府职能的转变。文章还对妇联在承接政府职能过程中如何防止行政化倾向进行了分析。     

宗教妇女观对妇女现代化的影响

宗教关于妇女的地位、权利和义务、婚姻、品行等问题,均有许多看法,具有二重性,既有尊重妇女、符合主流社会规范的观念,也有贬低妇女、妨碍妇女发展的思想。在现代社会,宗教的妇女观对妇女的现代化依然有较大的影响。宗教的妇女观对妇女现代化有许多有益的启示和借鉴,有助于妇女实现观念、行为、人格的现代化。     

依法治国是妇女权益保护的关键

妇女权益包括政治权利、文化教育权益、劳动权益、财产权益、人身权利和婚姻家庭权益等 ,它涉及社会的政治、经济、文化等各个方面 ,是社会关系错综复杂地交织在一起的统一体。妇女权益保护包含在宪法、刑法、劳动法、诉讼法、婚姻法等完整的法律体系中。建立了完整的法律体系后 ,能否依法办事 ,即能否依法治国成了妇女权益保护的关键 ,依法治国是实现妇女权益保护的前提和保障     

中日稻作起源研究回顾

1973年河姆渡遗址发现后,中日两国学者对稻作起源的研究有了突破性进展,对稻作起源年代的认定更为明确,尤其是两国学者对稻作起源区域的高度认同以及研究方法、内容上的互补,大大丰富了稻作文化的内涵。     

试论婚内强奸(下)

从婚内无"奸"到婚内有"奸",经历了一个漫长的过程.然而在现代社会,婚内强奸行为是否构成犯罪?这已成为当前社会探讨的焦点问题.婚姻关系存续期间的男女两性关系的特殊性和已婚妇女相对于丈夫是否享有性的自由权利以及我国是否具备将婚内强奸行为认定为强奸罪的社会基础都将成为决定婚内强奸行为是否构成强奸罪的决定因素.     

发展权:社会主义初级阶段男女平等的突破口--从第二期上海妇女社会地位调查谈起

以自然分工为基础的男尊女卑的社会性别关系,从诞生之日起就是对妇女发展权的赤裸裸的剥夺,参加社会生产是妇女回归社会、获得发展权的开端,在国家的发展政策中纳入性别观点,使妇女和男性一样平等地参与、促进并享受社会发展是实现发展权、进而实现男女平等的重要环节。目前恰恰就在就业、参政和继续教育等和发展权维护有关的问题上,上海妇女发展遭遇前所未有的挑战。促进、维护和实现妇女发展权,不仅能大幅度提升妇女社会参与的能力与实力,也能大大加快社会民主法制的进程及经济、文化的发展。     

Remortgaging Women's Lives: The World Bank'sLand Agenda in Africa

In recent months, the World Bank has issued a series of draft policy reports on land relations. This is the first time in over two decades that the Bank has sought to review its policy on lending in the land sector. Access to the draft reports and participation in the consultation process has, however, been severely limited. Nonetheless, the World Bank expects to issue the final Report by the end of this year. This paper presents a gender analysis of the two draft documents that have been made available to date. It assesses their implications for gender relations in Africa. It explores the World Bank's promotion of formal rural credit and challenges the assumption of the availability of women's unpaid agricultural labour. The paper argues that, far from being over, the struggle over land relations which has characterised the last decade in Africa, must continue. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.