HFL1501 Assignment 1 (DETAILED ANSWERS) Semester 1 2024 - DISTINCTION GUARANTEED

HFL1501 Assignment 1 (DETAILED ANSWERS) Semester 1 2024 - DISTINCTION GUARANTEED - DISTINCTION GUARANTEED Answers, guidelines, workings and references...... ..... QUESTION 1 Answer the following questions regarding the South African Law Reform Commission: 1.1 Describe the working method of the Commission as mentioned in your HFL1501 Study Guide. (3) 1.2 Read the following statement and answer the questions that follow: “It appears that the Commission does not hesitate to [refer to] the civil-law heritage that we share with other European legal systems.” (a) Explain what is meant by “civil-law heritage”. (1) (b) South African law consists of three components. Our civil-law heritage falls under which one of these three components? (1) [5] QUESTION 2 What is the main difference between reception and imposition? (1) [1] QUESTION 3 3.1. Until the 1950s, there were almost no written records of indigenous African history or law. This hampered the research of pre-colonial history in Africa. Describe three concerns mentioned in the HFL1501 Study Guide that historians had with regard to conducting research of unwritten history. (3) 3.2 Despite indigenous African law being essentially oral in nature, attempts were made to codify such law to simplify its application. One such codification was the 1878 Natal Code of Zulu Law. Name one other nineteenth-century codification of indigenous African law mentioned in Part 1 of the Study Guide. (1) 3.3 How did the indigenous population view these codifications mentioned in Question 3.2 above? (1) 3.4 Write a short note on the position of indigenous African law in terms of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996. Your answer should not be longer than 200 words. (2) [7] Page 3 of 3 QUESTION 4 4.1 Based on your understanding of Part 1 of the HFL1501 Study Guide, briefly discuss the courts’ views on the continuing relevance of the common law in South Africa. Your answer should not be longer than 300 words. (5) 4.2 Name one case mentioned in Part 1 of the HFL1501 Study Guide in which the Constitutional Court compared an indigenous African law principle and a Roman-Dutch law remedy and then came to the conclusion that both of these share a similar outlook and purpose. (1) [6] QUESTION 5 5.1 How did the application of the personality principle contribute to the survival of Roman law after the fall of the Western Roman Empire? (2) 5.2 Based on your understanding of Part 1 of the HFL1501 Study Guide, write a short note on the role of the Lex Romana Visigothorum in preserving Roman law in Western Europe after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Your answer should not be longer than 150 words. (2) [4] QUESTION 6 Historically, racism, unjust laws and the pursuit of segregation did not go unchallenged in South Africa. Name any two of the examples mentioned in the HFL1501 Study Guide of such acts of resistance that took place before the twentieth century. (2) [2]