Uses a single-country case study to enrich research on the role of constitutional courts in new democracies.

Introduction; 1. The Chaskalson Court's achievement; 2. A conceptual framework for assessing the performance of constitutional courts in interdisciplinary terms; 3. Operationalising the conceptual framework to explain the Court's achievement; 4. The political context for judicial review, 1995¿2005; 5. Constraints and opportunities: the law/politics distinction in South African legal-professional culture; 6. Death, desire and discrimination: the Chaskalson Court between constitutional and positive morality; 7. Social rights; 8. Property rights; 9. Political rights; 10. Cross-cutting strategies; 11. Conclusion.

Theunis Roux is Professor of Law at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. He is a former Secretary-General of the International Association of Constitutional Law (IACL) and the Founding Director of the South African Institute for Advanced Constitutional, Public, Human Rights and International Law (SAIFAC).