Constitutional borrowing: The influence of legal culture and local history in the reconstitution of comparative influence: The South African experience

Far too often one sees citation by counsel of, for instance, an American judgment in support of a proposition relating to our Constitution, without any attempt to explain why it is said to be in point. Comparative study is always useful, particularly where Courts in exemplary jurisdictions have grappled with universal issues confronting us…. But that is a far cry from blithe adoption of alien concepts or inappropriate precedents. Justice Johann Kriegler in Bernstein v. Bester