Source: The Star Online
BY AZMI SHAROM
Recent judgments have an impact on basic freedoms such as that of expression.
Azmi Sharom – file pic
RECENTLY I’ve been faced with a rather hurtful question. How can I teach my students the law?
This may seem like a weird question. After all I work in a law faculty. My students are there to study the law. What else am I to teach, then?
But there is a sting in the question. There is an implication to this seemingly simple query.
The question really should be: “how can I teach my students the law when the law seems to disregard such fundamental principles as constitutionalism and the rule of law”?
Looking at recent developments, it comes as no surprise that this question arises.
In a space of a fortnight the Federal and Appeal Courts of this country have taken retrograde steps pushing back any small advances we may have made in the realm of the right to assemble, the right to life and the right to expression.
They have done this by contradicting earlier decisions, by using technicalities and by interpreting the Constitution in a literalist manner which leaves the door wide open for tremendous abuse of our human rights. Read more →
