Private Law and Human Rights: Bringing Rights Home in Scotland and South Africa

Scotland and South Africa are mixed jurisdictions, combining features of common law and civil law traditions. Over the last decade, a shared feature in both Scotland and South Africa has been a new and intense focus on human rights. In Scotland, the European Convention on Human Rights now constitutes an important element in the foundation of all domestic law. Similarly, the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, adopted in 1996, has a Bill of Rights as its cornerstone. This binds the...