Abstract:
In this article I evaluate the manner in which South African courts have
chosen to deal with the range of institutional problems (problems with
institutional capacity, legitimacy, integrity and security, as well as pure
separation of powers problems) they face in the adjudication of constitutional
socio-economic rights claims. I investigate, that is, judicial deference in
socio-economic rights cases – the strategy of courts, when faced with difficult
technical or contested social questions in such cases to leave decision of those
issues, in different ways and to varying degrees, to the other branches of
government.
