In this episode I talk about the extraordinary legal system of South Africa with Jason Mitchell, an experienced South African advocate. We discuss the South African legal system and Jason's experience at an American law school. We then move to discuss the fact that South Africa offers a split legal system between "attorneys" and "advocates" (like the solicitors and barristers of the UK system). Then we discuss the South African court hierarchy, including the intermediate court of appeals (the Supreme Court of Appeal) and the apex court (the Constitutional Court of South Africa). We delve into how the Supreme Court of Appeal does its work, and how it is differentiated from the Constitutional Court, consider the constitutional grant of fact-finding to the Supreme Court, and the bases for jurisdiction in the Constitutional Court. We talk about how the Constitutional Court can confirm laws as unconstitutional or constitutional, and then talk a little about South Africa has British style procedure but Dutch-Roman law. We then detail how judges end up on the Constitutional Court, and then dig in on the extremely moving symbolism of the South African Constitutional Court and how it relates to repudiating the apartheid regime. Finally, we discuss how to actually litigate a case in the Constitutional Court and how decisions are made in that Court, including a lot of discussion about oral argument and the skills of top South African advocates.

This is a great episode about a legal system that is both familiar and deeply different. Please send me your feedback at @RMFifthCircuit.