(Faculty of Law, University of the Free State, 2013) Serfontein, E. M.
English: In order to develop the South African common law and understand how legal
processes must transpire in contemporary South Africa, a historic-social-contextual
analysis is proposed. Such a critical analysis not only assists courts in understanding
the development of this country’s common law as well as the external and internal
influences affecting it, but also enables them to build a historic bridge between the
past of a deeply divided society and a future founded on constitutional values.