Black Lawyers, White Courts: The Soul of South African Law

by Kenneth S. Broun

Book Overview

In the struggle against apartheid, one often overlooked group of crusaders was the coterie of black lawyers who overcame the Byzantine system that the government established oftentimes explicitly to block the paths of its black citizens from achieving justice.

Now, in their own voices, we have the narratives of many of those lawyers as recounted in a series of oral interviews. Black Lawyers, White Courts is their story and the anti-apartheid...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0821412868
• ISBN13: 9780821412862
• Release Date: December 1999
• Publisher: Ohio University Press
• Length: 312 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Amazing but true--lawyers can be the good guys

This book captures the struggles of some of the real heroes of the anti-apartheid movement, the black lawyers of South Africa. From those who went from the cells of Robben Island to corporate boardrooms, to those who stood side by side with Nelson Mandela in court and now are judges, these amazing individuals used their smarts and savvy to tear down a corrupt system. These courageous individuals often used the very laws the apartheid government had devised to argue that the system was fundamentally corrupt. Although Professor Broun primarily let's his subjects tell their stories, using an oral history approach to their lives, the commentary he adds allows the reader to understand the background of these men and women and how they fit into the South African legal system. As an added bonus, the book contains a message from Nelson Mandela, South Africa's most famous lawyer. A must read for anyone interested in South Africa and for anyone who needs evidence that lawyers aren't always the bad guys.