De Villiers, Isolde2019-06-022019-06-022019/04/042019Makgatho, M 2019, The role of woman adjudicators in post-apartheid jurisprudence, LLM Mini Dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd <http://hdl.handle.net/2263/69895>A2019http://hdl.handle.net/2263/69895Mini Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2019.Female judges who have occupied a seat and those that are still sitting on the Constitutional Court are in the minority compared to their male counterparts, who occupy a majority of the seats. This disparity, in part, contributes to the lack of judgments that follow a feminist approach. This means that most judgments will most likely not benefit women. In this mini-dissertation I draw awareness to the lack of gender representation that has, in turn, hampered the impact that female judges have in the advancement of gender equality jurisprudence. I do so by focusing on two aspects that are closely related. In the first fold, I look at the Constitutional call for gender representation in our judiciary and argue its importance by highlighting that the presence of women makes a difference and it brings legitimacy to the judiciary. In the second fold, I agree that gender representation is important, however, I argue that it is not sufficient. Our Constitutional Court, in addition to women judges, needs feminist judgments that will profit women litigants and propagate a feminine discourse and an ethics of care in law. I refer to the work of Mary Jane Mossman where she looks at three principles of legal method, namely, characterisation of the issue, choice in precedence, and the interpretation of statutes. I do so in conjunction with two (out of four) aspects of judging highlighted by Rosemary Hunter, namely, extra-judicial activities and the court process, as solutions to the principles by Mossman. To elaborate on the second fold, I consider two minority judgments from the Constitutional Court that are examples of feminist judging, namely, the Jordan and the Volks cases. I show how the women judges, through the minority judgments, looked at the facts broadly and holistically, and not through a formalistic approach.en© 2019 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria.UCTDMini Dissertation13045092