digitalcommons.nyls.edu Faculty Scholarship Articles & Chapters 2016 The trS uggle for the Rule of Law in South Africa (Symposium: Twenty Years of South African Constitutionalism: Constitutional Rights, Judicial Independence and the Transition to Democracy) Stephen J. Ellmann New York Law School,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.nyls.edu/fac_articles_chapters Part of the Constitutional Law Commons, and the Human Rights Law Commons Recommended Citation 60 N.Y. L. Sch. L. Rev. 57 2015-2016 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship at DigitalCommons@NYLS. It has been accepted for inclusion in Articles & Chapters by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@NYLS. 0OUM .0 1205 .1 STEPHEN ELLMANN 'The Struggle for the Rule of Law in South Africa 60 N.Y.L. SCH. L. REv. 57 (2015-2016) ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Stephen Ellmann is Martin Professor of Law at New York Law School. The author thanks the other presenters, commentators, and attenders of the "Courts Against Corruption" panel, on November 16, 2014, for their insights. THE STRUGGLE FOR THE RULE OF LAW IN SOUTH AFRICA I. INTRODUCTION The blight of apartheid was partly its horrendous discrimination, but also its lawlessness. South Africa was lawless in the bluntest sense, as its rulers maintained their power with the help of death squads and torturers.' But it was also lawless, or at least unlawful, in a broader and more pervasive way: the rule of law did not hold in South Africa. Apartheid, as was often