Abstracts

11 Introduction The words, reasonable measures , shape socioeconomic law in South Africa. This phrase has delineated the path that the courts have taken, and will take, in interpreting cases of the government’s shortcomings in delivering constitutionally prescribed rights to housing, health care, and education. Justice Zak Yacoob, in his majority decision in Government of the Republic of South Africa et al v. Grootboom et al ( Grootboom ), spoke for the Constitutional Court in directing legislators to take “reasonable measures to provide adequate housing” (2000, p. 11). Expanding beyond that right alone, the state is constitutionally obliged to “take reasonable legislative and other measures, within its available resources, to achieve the progressive realization of each of [the aforementioned] rights” (2000, p. 11). 1 1 The example of education is explored in further detail later in this article. The right to basic education is written and understood differently from the rights to further What the Grootboom decision did in applying that clause to its reasoning was to cement it as a feature of judicial decision making. It was thereafter established as a litmus test that the courts could use in determining the adequacy of the government’s efforts. Subsequent socioeconomic rights trials have been determined on this decision’s logic. Rather than focusing on the right to access, the courts placed emphasis on the state’s positive duties. Although the question of access remained relevant to the courts, the reasonable measures test became central to their jurisprudence. Was the government taking adequate steps within the limitations of finite resources to deliver constitutional guarantees? This question decided Grootboom , and it has driven many of the landmark socioeconomic rights cases since. In generating a reasonable measures test, the South African Constitutional Court education, housing, and health care, and the concept of “progressive realization” does not apply to it. INCREMENTALISM IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN LEGAL SYSTEM: SOCIOECONOMIC RIGHTS AND THE JUDICIARY Aaron K. Adams The South African Bill of Rights expressly provides citizens with the socioeconomic rights to housing, health care, and education. As a constitutional issue, the economic and administrative difficulties in delivering these rights have been addressed as a subject of the courts. Increased access is the legal prescription for socioeconomic rights achievement. This article explores case law evidence for a different way in which judicial interpretation expands these rights. I have termed this, incrementalism : the progressive realization of the right through its components. Perspectives on Business and Economics, Vol. 38, 2020