Magistrates Under Apartheid: A Case Study of Professional Ethics and the Politicisation of Justice

This paper is both a response to, and an off-shoot from, one of the TRC's legal sector hearings, held in October 1997. The hearings revealed the extent to which the legal profession became complicit in the implementation of apartheid. Magistrates performed crucial functions in relation to political detainees, including overseeing the complaints and safeguard machinery. It was on the complaints and safeguard system that this study was initially focused.