Book review - The Bill of Rights Handbook 5ed

• Published date: 16 August 2019
• Date: 16 August 2019

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BOOK REVIEW

The Bill of Rights Handbook 5ed

by Iain Currie & Johan de Waal

Juta and Co Ltd 2005. 825pp. Price R365

ISBN 0 7021 5923 9

DANWOOD MZIKENGE CHIRWA

Senior Lecturer, University of Cape Town

In mid 2005 bookshelves gladly received, after about four years of waiting,

the f‌ifth edition of the Bill of Rights Handbook (Handbook). Contrary to

conventional wisdom, one can judge the Handbook by its cover. It is

bound in blue, glittering colours that easily match the quality of the book.

There has been a reshuff‌ling of the authors. Iain Currie and Johan de Waal

have swapped positions, with the former now appearing as the principal

author and Gerhard Erasmus is no longer involved.

The Handbook addresses, arguably, the most important subject in the

new constitutional order — the Bill of Rights. The latter is a cornerstone

of South Africa’s young democracy. All governmental conduct and

laws and certain private conduct must conform to it. In order for this

critical constitutional objective to be achieved the Bill of Rights must

be understood by all in the country. The Handbook manages to strike a

careful balance between ensuring that it is accessible to a wider audience

than people trained in law and maintaining its quality as a legal textbook.

The new edition is a signif‌icant improvement on the fourth edition. Like

the fourth edition, it has 33 chapters examining various provisions of the

Bill of Rights but it is 140 pages longer. Given the large number of cases

decided since the last edition the authors have done remarkably well in

limiting the length of the book, an achievement which has eluded many

authors of other books on the same topic.

This edition largely follows the pattern of previous editions. The f‌irst

eight chapters deal with procedural issues, including: the structure of

the Bill of Rights litigation, application, interpretation and limitations of

rights; jurisdiction of the courts and; remedies for Bill of Rights litigation.

Wide ranging changes have been made to these chapters but they are not

(2006) 19 SACJ 342

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