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Military courts in a democratic South Africa: in search of their judicial independence

Includes bibliographical references.

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Tshivhase, Aifheli Enos
Other Authors: Corder, Hugh
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Public Law 2015
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access_status_str Open Access
author Tshivhase, Aifheli Enos
author2 Corder, Hugh
author_browse Corder, Hugh
Tshivhase, Aifheli Enos
author_facet Corder, Hugh
Tshivhase, Aifheli Enos
author_sort Tshivhase, Aifheli Enos
collection Thesis
description Includes bibliographical references.
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/11662
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:32:41.376Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2015
publishDateRange 2015
publishDateSort 2015
publisher Department of Public Law
publisherStr Department of Public Law
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/11662 Military courts in a democratic South Africa: in search of their judicial independence Tshivhase, Aifheli Enos Corder, Hugh Public Law Includes bibliographical references. The new constitutional era in South Africa has brought fresh demands on all institutions of society. The South African military justice system has not been spared. The pressure to transform this system has also been fuelled by a wave of reform of military justice systems in other democratic Commonwealth jurisdictions. In this thesis, I evaluate South African military courts against the basic requirements of judicial independence as interpreted by the Constitutional Court and relevant international bodies. In doing so, I draw on my experience of working in military courts as defence and prosecution counsel respectively in the South African National Defence Force. I conclude that all forums of military justice (including the Commanding Officer’s Disciplinary Hearing) do not meet most requirements for judicial independence. Military judges lack security of tenure; financial security; institutional independence on important administrative aspects; and their institutional impartiality is questionable. I further investigate a suitable model of judicial independence for South African military courts in the democratic era. I propose a new model guided by the following: relevant principles of constitutional and international law relating to judicial independence and the right to a fair trial; emerging foreign trends; and most importantly, military uniqueness and operational effectiveness. 2015-01-06T19:03:07Z 2015-01-06T19:03:07Z 2012 Doctoral Thesis Doctoral PhD http://hdl.handle.net/11427/11662 eng application/pdf Department of Public Law Faculty of Law University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Public Law
Tshivhase, Aifheli Enos
Military courts in a democratic South Africa: in search of their judicial independence
thesis_degree_str Doctoral
title Military courts in a democratic South Africa: in search of their judicial independence
title_full Military courts in a democratic South Africa: in search of their judicial independence
title_fullStr Military courts in a democratic South Africa: in search of their judicial independence
title_full_unstemmed Military courts in a democratic South Africa: in search of their judicial independence
title_short Military courts in a democratic South Africa: in search of their judicial independence
title_sort military courts in a democratic south africa in search of their judicial independence
topic Public Law
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/11662
work_keys_str_mv AT tshivhaseaifhelienos militarycourtsinademocraticsouthafricainsearchoftheirjudicialindependence