Book Reviews : RICHARD L. ABEL, Politics by Other Means: Law in the Struggle against Apartheid, 1980-1994. New York and London: Routledge, 1995, 644 pp
| Published date | 01 June 1997 |
| DOI | 10.1177/096466399700600215 |
| Date | 01 June 1997 |
| Author | Adrian Guelke |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
310
themes.
Taken
together
these
themes
serve
to
re-emphasize
the
central
importance
of
the
subject
and
to
increase
both
the
sense
of
frustration
and
the
inherent
interest
of
property.
The
vivid
and
useful
case
studies
in
this
book
make
establishing
links
more
difficult,
not
less.
Anybody
who
doubts
this
should
add
to
a
reading
of
these
contri-
butions
a
look
at
other
recent
writing
on
property
law
such
as
John
Habakkuk’s
(1994)
admirable
and
enormous
study,
Marriage,
Debt
and
the
Estates
System.
We
are
a
thousand
miles
from
any
sophisticated
theoretical
framework -
in
the
language
of
Blackstone
there
is
no
’clew’
to
the
’labyrinth’
(see
Lieberman,
p. 153).
Excellent
work
is
being
done
on
the
history
of
property.
We
are
beginning
to
see
some
landmarks,
but
we
still
cannot
see
the
map.
The
next
10
years
should
be
interesting.
REFERENCES
Graham,
J.
(1827)
Corn
and
Currency.
London:
James
Ridgway.
Habakkuk,
J.
(1994)
Marriage,
Debt
and
the
Estates
System:
English
Landownership
1650-1950.
Oxford:
Oxford
University
Press.
RAYMOND
COCKS
Department
of Law,
Keele
University,
UK
RICHARD
L.
ABEL,
Politics
by
Other
Means:
Law
in
the
Struggle
against
Apartheid,
1980-1994.
New
York
and
London:
Routledge,
1995, 644
pp.
This
huge
work
of
scholarship
is
a
celebration
of
the
role
that
liberal
and
radical
lawyers
played
in
the
fight
against
apartheid.
The book
closes
with
the
statement:
’The
handful
of
lawyers
who
helped
blacks
overthrow
three
centuries
of
white
domination
in
South
Africa
should
be
proud
of the
role
they
played’
(p.
549).
It
contains
Fore-
words
by
Nelson
Mandela
and
by
Professors
John
Dugard
and
Geoffrey
Budlender,
two
of the
lawyers
who
played
a
prominent
role
in
the
events
described
by
Abel.
The
core
of
the
book
is
a
series
of
case
studies
of
a
number
of
the
major
legal
battles
of
the
1980s.
The
first
of
these
describes
the
undermining
of the
pass
laws
as
a
result
of
the
efforts
of
the
Legal
Resources
Centre
(LRC).
The
LRC
got
most
of
its
funding
from
US
foundations
sympathetic
to
its
strategy
of
challenging
the
pillars
of
apartheid
through
test
cases.
The
strategy
achieved
spectacular
success
in
two
instances,
the
Komani
case
and
the
Rikhoto
case.
In
1975
Komani
sued
the
Bantu
Affairs
Administration
Board
for
the
Cape
Penin-
sula
over
its
refusal
to
allow
his
wife
to
reside
with
him.
His
case
was
eventually
dis-
missed
in
1979.
At
this
point
his
case
was
taken
up
on
appeal
by
the
LRC.
The
Appellate
Division
decided
in
Komani’s
favour
over
the
issue
of
the
use
of
accommo-
dation
regulations
to
deny
residence
to
an
individual
who
was
otherwise
qualified
to
live
in
the
particular
urban
area.
It
was
a
victory
against
an
aspect
of
the
implementa-
tions
of
the
pass
laws
but
a
limited
one.
Much
more
fundamental
was
the
Rikhoto
case,
decided
in
1983.
By
deciding
that
temporary
absences
from
the
urban
area
did
not
disqualify
Rikhoto
from
acquiring
the
right
to
live
there
by
reason
of
continuous
employment
in
the
area
over
a
number
of
years,
the
court
frustrated
the
government’s
intentions
that
black
urban
workers
should
remain
temporary
sojourners
in
’white’
South
Africa,
thereby
providing
justification
for
denying
them
all
manner
of
rights,
including
political
rights.
Abel
provides
not
merely
a
thorough
account
of the
cases
themselves
but
an
illuminating
account
of the
battles
lawyers
encountered
in
getting
the
bureaucracy
to
implement
the
decisions
of
the
courts.
z
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