Les questions de légitimité et de stabilité des systèmes politiques ont longtemps été étudiées séparément des problèmes de mise en oeuvre du droit en sciences économiques. L’objectif de cette thèse est concilier ces différentes approches afin de replacer la mise en oeuvre de la norme juridique au centre du débat institutionnel. Ce travail se décompose en cinq investigations empiriques ou expérimentales portant chacune sur une des étapes du processus politique et judiciaire.Le premier article s’intéresse à l’impact des droits constitutionnels sur les dépenses publiques. La seconde étude explore l’influence des biais d’auto-complaisance sur la demande et l’offre de redistribution. Le troisième travail analyse les décisions rendues par le Conseil Constitutionnel. La quatrième partie examine la réforme de la carte judiciaire des Conseils de Prud’hommes de 2008. Le dernier chapitre étudie la relation entre la composition syndicale des Conseils de Prud’hommes et les issues des litiges qui y sont portés.Nos analyses reposent sur les outils économétriques et expérimentaux. Elles font usage de méthodes d’estimations classiques (OLS, GLS, Probit, Logit, Within OLS), de modèles à sélection (Heckman, Triprobit), des outils destinés aux problèmes d’endogénéité (2SLS)et des techniques d’estimation de systèmes d’équation (3SLS). L’approche expérimentale contient également des tests statistiques communément appliqués (tests de permutation,tests de comparaison de moyenne, tests de proportion) ainsi que de récentes méthodes pour traiter l’hétérogénéité (wild clustering). / The legitimacy and the stability of political systems have very often been studied in economics separate from considerations about legal norms’ enforcement. My objective is to combine these different approaches, and to place the question of the legal enforcement at the heart of the debate about institutions. This work is made of cinq empirical and experimental investigations that deal with each of the stages of the political and legal process.This first paper analyzes the impact of constitutional rights on public expenditures. The second article explores the influence of self-serving biases on the demand and the supplyof redistribution. The third analysis focuses on the decisions of the French Constitutional Council. The fourth work deals with the recent reform of the judiciary map of Frenchlabor courts. The last study investigates the relationship between the composition of the elected jurors in French labor courts and the way cases are terminated.Our investigations rely on econometric and experimental techniques. They use standard estimation methods (OLS, GLS, Probit, Logit, Within OLS), selection models (Heckman,Triprotibt), techniques for endogeneity correction (2SLS), and methods to estimate systems of equations (3SLS). The experimental analysis makes use of standard statistical tests(permutation tests, proportion tests, two-group mean-comparison tests), and more recent methods to solve heterogeneity (wild clustering).

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If the expectancy that someone was to act according to what we deem to be his or her “duty” was that straightforward, there would be no need to address the issues of liability of the employee for the wrongful acts of the employer. The recent - and some say alarming - trend in South Africa to hold employers (particularly the government) liable for wrongful, culpable acts committed by their employees, gives rise to difficulties and any inquiry into the possible vicarious liability of the employer should necessarily always start by asking whether there was in fact a wrongful, culpable act committed by the employee. If not, there can neither be direct liability of the employee nor vicarious liability by the employer. Where the employee did indeed commit a delict, the relationship between the wrongdoer and his or her employer at the time of the wrongdoing becomes important. It is then often, in determining whether the employee was acting in the scope of his or her employment that normative issues come to the fore. Over the years South African courts have devised tests to determine whether an employee was in fact acting in the scope of his employment. / Jurisprudence / LLM

Section 33(1)(b) is fraught with borrowed provisions. The end-product marries German and Canadian features. The failure of the German Constitutional Courts to interpret the "essential content of a right" precipitated the adopted infant's bumpy landing in South Africa. That the sibling still lacks identity is evidenced by our Constitutional Court's evasive and superficial treatment of the clause. Section 33(1)(a) - proportionality prong enables judges to justify their neglect of Section 33(1)(b). The opinion is expressed that Section 33(1){b) demands interpretation but to date it has been shrouded in vagueness. After all without demarcating boundaries with sufficient precision and highlighting where the State may not tread the State may trespass. Alternatively the limitable nature of human rights could become a myth as Section 33(1)(b) could be transformed into an insurmountable hurdle for the State, rendering every right absolute in practice. A workable conceptual framework proposes an inverted, porous and value imbibing solution. / Law / LL.M.

The objective of this thesis is to assess the impact and influence of South Africa's Constitutional Court in the first two years of our democracy. To achieve this objective, some of the definitive and controversial cases already decided by the Court have been selected and analysed in an attempt to glean some jurisprudential perspectives of the Court. It focuses on the work of the Court over the past two years. It deals with the evolution of South Africa into a democracy, and analyzes the South African legal system prior to the beginning of the process of transformation. It briefly surveys the evolution of our constitutional system, dating back from the pre-1910 colonial period and provides a broad outline of the legal system in the post-April 1994 period of transformation. It analyzes the Court from the point of view of, inter alia, its composition, jurisdiction and powers. The Court is also contrasted with courts in other jurisdictions which exercise full judicial review. The Court's emerging jurisprudence is examined. A review is made, inter alia, of the Court's understanding of, and approach to, the questions of the values underpinning the post-apartheid society and its constitutional system, and constitutional interpretation. The right against self-incrimination and South African company law and the two relevant Constitutional Court cases are discussed. The collection of evidence by the State and the constitutionality of provisions relating to search and seizure and the taking of fingerprints are looked into. The Court's approach to statutory presumptions and criminal prosecutions; some aspects of our appeals procedures; an accused's right to be assisted by a lawyer at state expense; the question of a fair trial and access to information; capital punishment; corporal punishment; committal to prison for debt; and the certification of constitutions is analyzed. Two of the cases in which the provinces clashed with the national government on the distribution of posers between provinces and the national government are discussed. The conclusion is that the Court has, overall, hitherto acquitted itself well in the handling of particularly the controversial quasi-political questions that arose in the cases it has decided. / Constitutional, International & Indigenous Law / L.L. D. (Law)

Text in Afrikaans / The broad focus of the thesis is an analysis of the meaning and the modern development of the doctrine of the separation of power (trias politica) and the application thereof in the constitutional development in South Africa. The first chapter outlines the historical restrictions that were placed on governmental authority by the trias politica doctrine. In the following chapter the application of the trias politica doctrine in different governmental systems (parliamentary, presidential and semipresidential) are analysed. In the third chapter an analysis is made of the constitutions of the former Boer republics, chronologically followed by an analysis of the 1909, 1961 and 1983 Constitutions, to establish to which extent the trias politica doctrine was incorporated in the respective constitutions. In the subsequent chapters, the focus shifts to the constitutions in the post democratic era, namely the 1993 interim Constitution and the 1996 (final) Constitution. It is evident that the new supreme Constitution and an independent judiciary yielded to a stronger adherence to the separation of power principle. It is also evident that the retainment of the parliamentary system, with a fused legislature and executive authority, inhibited a stronger separation of power. The inclusion of sosioeconomic rights in the Constitution resulted in a more direct involvement in governmental policy. However, the Constitutional Court managed to maintain a fine balance between reviewing policy and the formulation of policy. In the closing chapter a short summary is provided, followed by comments on possible alternatives to the existing system to ensure a stronger separation of powers. / Public, Constitutional and International Law / LL. D. (Constitutional, International and Indigenous Law)

If the expectancy that someone was to act according to what we deem to be his or her “duty” was that straightforward, there would be no need to address the issues of liability of the employee for the wrongful acts of the employer. The recent - and some say alarming - trend in South Africa to hold employers (particularly the government) liable for wrongful, culpable acts committed by their employees, gives rise to difficulties and any inquiry into the possible vicarious liability of the employer should necessarily always start by asking whether there was in fact a wrongful, culpable act committed by the employee. If not, there can neither be direct liability of the employee nor vicarious liability by the employer. Where the employee did indeed commit a delict, the relationship between the wrongdoer and his or her employer at the time of the wrongdoing becomes important. It is then often, in determining whether the employee was acting in the scope of his or her employment that normative issues come to the fore. Over the years South African courts have devised tests to determine whether an employee was in fact acting in the scope of his employment. / Jurisprudence / LL. M.

Section 34 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 outlines the scope of judicial authority as encompassing the resolution of any dispute that can be resolved by the application of law. The courts in South Africa have developed several justiciability canons that restrain when courts may adjudicate disputes, such as standing, mootness, ripeness, and the prevention of advisory opinions. These justiciability canons emanate from constitutional considerations such as respect for separation of powers and the proper role and scope of judicial review in a constitutional democracy. This study focuses on another justiciability canon - the political question doctrine. This doctrine arises from the principle of separation of powers and, in the main, provides that certain questions of constitutional law are allocated to the discretion of the elected branches of government for resolution. As a result, such questions are non-justiciable and require the judiciary to abstain from deciding them because not doing so intrudes into the functions of the elected branches of government. The underlying theme is that such questions must find resolution in the political process. Through a comparative lens, the study examines the origins and current application of the political question doctrine in selected countries with a view to obtain lessons therefrom. It examines the origins of the doctrine, by placing particular emphasis on the early application of the doctrine by the US Supreme Court. The study also examines the modern application of the doctrine in the constitutional jurisprudence of several countries, including Ghana, Uganda and Nigeria. It advances the view that while the doctrine exists in the South African jurisprudence, the Constitutional Court should articulate and develop it into a clear doctrine taking into account lessons from those countries. The study offers some recommendations in this regard. The study submits that the political question doctrine is an appropriate legal mechanism through which the South African judiciary can address the recent problem of the proliferation of cases brought to the courts that raise non-justiciable political questions and threaten to delegitimize the role of the courts in a democracy. / Public, Constitutional and International Law / LL. D.

Text in Afrikaans / The broad focus of the thesis is an analysis of the meaning and the modern development of the doctrine of the separation of power (trias politica) and the application thereof in the constitutional development in South Africa. The first chapter outlines the historical restrictions that were placed on governmental authority by the trias politica doctrine. In the following chapter the application of the trias politica doctrine in different governmental systems (parliamentary, presidential and semipresidential) are analysed. In the third chapter an analysis is made of the constitutions of the former Boer republics, chronologically followed by an analysis of the 1909, 1961 and 1983 Constitutions, to establish to which extent the trias politica doctrine was incorporated in the respective constitutions. In the subsequent chapters, the focus shifts to the constitutions in the post democratic era, namely the 1993 interim Constitution and the 1996 (final) Constitution. It is evident that the new supreme Constitution and an independent judiciary yielded to a stronger adherence to the separation of power principle. It is also evident that the retainment of the parliamentary system, with a fused legislature and executive authority, inhibited a stronger separation of power. The inclusion of sosioeconomic rights in the Constitution resulted in a more direct involvement in governmental policy. However, the Constitutional Court managed to maintain a fine balance between reviewing policy and the formulation of policy. In the closing chapter a short summary is provided, followed by comments on possible alternatives to the existing system to ensure a stronger separation of powers. / Public, Constitutional and International Law / LL. D. (Constitutional, International and Indigenous Law)

Section 33(1)(b) is fraught with borrowed provisions. The end-product marries German and Canadian features. The failure of the German Constitutional Courts to interpret the "essential content of a right" precipitated the adopted infant's bumpy landing in South Africa. That the sibling still lacks identity is evidenced by our Constitutional Court's evasive and superficial treatment of the clause. Section 33(1)(a) - proportionality prong enables judges to justify their neglect of Section 33(1)(b). The opinion is expressed that Section 33(1){b) demands interpretation but to date it has been shrouded in vagueness. After all without demarcating boundaries with sufficient precision and highlighting where the State may not tread the State may trespass. Alternatively the limitable nature of human rights could become a myth as Section 33(1)(b) could be transformed into an insurmountable hurdle for the State, rendering every right absolute in practice. A workable conceptual framework proposes an inverted, porous and value imbibing solution. / Law / LL.M.