We are all international lawyers; now what? Taking seriously the constitutional injunction to integrate international law obligations into South African law

Abstract

There is 'no escape from the manifest constitutional injunction to integrate, in a way the Constitution permits, international law obligations into our domestic law.' So proclaimed the Constitutional Court almost a decade ago. The article begins by summarising and analysing how the Constitutional Court and other courts have, in successive cases, drawn international law deeply into the fabric of South African law and the justiciable obligations of public officials. In so doing, the courts have breathed life into what we referred to as the Constitution's international law trifecta. It is on this basis we claim that we are all international lawyers now. But lest those words appear no more than hollow rhetoric, this article considers how one ought to take seriously the Constitution's inescapable integrative injunction. This is done by first reflecting on and delineating the principles flowing from the last ten years of international law jurisprudence. Having laid that foundation, the article then considers in more detail certain issues that the courts' integrative endeavours have highlighted but remain to be resolved and reconciled. Finally, the article articulates and examines, now that we are all international lawyers, certain of the potential dangers to be avoided when interpreting and applying international law.