Interrogating justice: Research on race and gender bias in the South African court system

Abstract

This article provides a brief description of the work of the Law, Race and Gender Research Unit of the University of Cape Town. The Unit was established to do research on race and gender bias in the administration of justice and to explore the possibility of judicial training in South Africa. Its first projects concerned the now-submerged racism of discourse in the magistrates' courts and gender bias in divorce cases. More recently the Unit has undertaken an empirical study of divorce cases. Covering applications for interdicts pending divorce, the role of the family advocate, and maintenance procedures, this work provides a view of cases which focuses on the circumstances of the parties rather than the law. A study on the allocation of housing assessed the extent to which the system caters for women with dependents. Finally, the article describes work on the new Prevention of Family Violence Act.

Until very recently, judicial education programmes have not been appropriate in South Africa for political reasons. The article suggests that this has changed and foresees the Unit's future involvement in such training programmes.