Conquest Constitutionalism and Democratic Contestations

<p>Two decades since the enactment of South Africa’s present constitution the durability and endurance of ‘past’ inequalities and injustices illustrate that the ‘new South Africa’ – lauded as a miracle nation with the best constitution in the world – can no longer be regarded as an unqualified success. The legal and constitutional foundations of post-1994 South Africa are in a process of renegotiation that invites new and alternative perspectives and approaches.</p><p>This comprehensive volume explores this process of renegotiation by engaging political and intellectual contestations circulating in South African academic and public discourse relating to continuities and discontinuities between the colonial-apartheid past and the post-1994 constitutional present. The authors analyse the moral intellectual and political unravelling of post-1994 South African constitutionalism (as legal text and political culture) and enquire whether it has been able to respond adequately to the <i>fundamental </i>contradictions generated by colonisation and apartheid. They also consider how centring the historical problem of European domination and conquest in Africa – and South Africa in particular – might provide an alternative frame or lens to theorise and understand contemporary South African realities.</p><p>This book marks out a complex field of contestation – involving competing histories locations visions and perspectives – that raises multifaceted questions regarding law history and politics. It is the outcome of a <i>South African Journal of Human Rights</i> colloquium and was originally published as a special issue of the journal.</p>