HFL SEMESTER 1 ASSESSMENT 6

2023

HFL1501

Historical Foundations of South African
law

First semester of 2023

Assessment 6: QUESTIONS & ANSWERS



Due date: 10:00 AM on Wednesday, 24 May
2023




CHRISTINA SHAAKUMENI

, QUESTION 1

Answer the following questions regarding historic constitutions in South
African legal history mentioned in the Study Guide:

1.1 Name two South African constitutions of which you have learned in this
module that were promulgated during the twentieth century that entrenched
only the formal testing powers of the courts. (2)


ANSWER:
… the 1961 and the 1983 Constitutions of the Republic of South Africa 1

The 1910 Constitution of the Union of South Africa2


Reference:
Page 60 Partial recognition of constitutionalism, which entails that parliament is
supreme. Courts have formal testing capacity


Page 63 The 1910 Constitution of the Union of South Africa made explicit
provision for the formal testing powers of the courts.


1.2 Which nineteenth-century constitution of an independent republic in South
Africa was influenced by the American Constitution? (1)


ANSWER:


Orange Free State Constitution of 18543


Reference:
Page 63 … the Orange Free State Constitution of 1854. The Constitution was
strongly influenced by the American Constitution and the idea of
constitutionalism.

1
Only Study Guide for HFL1501, The Origins of South African Law (University of South Africa
Pretoria 2018) 60.
2
Only Study Guide for HFL1501, 63.
3
Only Study Guide for HFL1501, 63.