Chapter Four of the 1995 Constitution is justiciable. Article 50 is the door. Anyone who claims a fundamental right or freedom has been infringed or threatened may apply to a competent court for redress, including compensation. A person or organisation may also act on behalf of another. That second sentence is why NGOs and advocacy groups can bring structural cases.
Human Rights · Lecture notes
Article 50 and Public Interest Litigation
Standing, remedies, and how to structure a Chapter Four enforcement claim without drowning in rhetoric.
Hornbook Faculty4 min read0 reads
You still need a justiciable right, a plausible infringement or threat, and a respondent with a duty. Public-interest standing does not excuse a speculative claim. Identify the specific article — 21 (equality), 22 (life), 23 (liberty), 27 (privacy), 28 (fair hearing), 29 (expression, assembly, religion), 40 (economic rights), 45 (unenumerated rights) — and then the facts that touch it.
Limitation
Article 43 allows limitation of rights in the public interest, but not beyond what is acceptable and demonstrably justifiable in a free and democratic society, and not to a point of political persecution. Article 44 then locks four rights away from derogation. A good script always runs the limitation analysis rather than shouting ‘unconstitutional’.
Remedies
- Declarations of invalidity.
- Injunctions and mandatory orders.
- Compensation, including for constitutional damage.
- Structural orders in appropriate public-interest cases.
Any person who claims that a fundamental or other right or freedom guaranteed under this Constitution has been infringed or threatened, is entitled to apply to a competent court for redress.
— Article 50(1)