HUMAN DIGNITY AND FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS IN SOUTH AFRICA AND IRELAND AND RULE OF LAW REFORM AND DEVELOPMENT – CHARTING THE FRAGILE PATH OF PROGRESS

Abstract

These two scholarly and accessible works stand in their own right, whilst being complementary. Each affirms and expands on what Magna Carta is believed to embody. They engage with the struggle to ensure that law is a living branch of learning and praxis, advancing not only notions of rights but fixing them firmly into the interstices not only of legal decision–making, but throughout the legal systems they address and the societies thereby regulated. Rule of Law is the more straightforward of the two. Human dignity and fundamental rights is more complex. Yet both acknowledge the vital importance of law and justice as the basis of a good, decent and just society. Each questions how best this can be achieved.