In a Time of Trouble La and Liberty in South Africa's State of Emergency [Hardcover]

Can the law really protect human rights when they are most under siege? During much of South Africa's state of emergency, the country's highest court grimly rejected efforts to use the law to restrain emergency power. This work examines the intersection between law and emergency power in South Africa. Ellmann begins with an outline of the legal framework that exists in South Africa, pointing out the capacity it has to mitigate the excesses of the legislators' designs. He continues by demonstrating through the judges decisions that, with few exceptions, they repeatedly vindicated the emergency powers. Ellmann suggests that though a legal tradition existed for the protection of human rights, it was denied as a result of certain judges' decisions. This study teaches that law is no guarantee of liberty, but it can help slow the march of oppression.

Ellmann's analysis is based on an encyclopedic reading of the South African literature, legal and other, and his perceptions weave a rich fabric of subtle insight....A book that deserves to be read, not summarized. --Michigan Law Review

A wide-ranging and provocative piece of legal scholarship which draws on a broad range of comparative legal history and is rich in speculations about the relationship between law and state....For South African legal specialists it is thus particularly welcome at a time when they must unflinchingly consider their future in the full light of their past. But this engaging book also offers broader insights on the politics of doctrinal innovation, state legitimation, and the institutional power of judiciaries in authoritarian regimes. Thus is should also stir spirited argument within a wider audience of compararative legal scholars. --The Law and Politics Book Review

This is legal sociology at its best, worth reading both for its insight into South Africa's legal culture, and as a case study of an important, if unexpected, part of the public oppositiols+