![Sample our Area Studies journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5922/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Area-Studies.jpg"})
Abstract
For most democracies across the world, legislative engagement in foreign policy development has traditionally been limited to ratification of international agreements and oversight of the executive. While the Parliament of South Africa tends to adhere to this traditional approach, deferring to the executive on matters of foreign policy, this paper argues that a collaborative approach between the legislative and executive branches as articulated in the South African constitution must rather form the basis of South Africa's foreign policy development process. Moreover, by comparing the parliament of South Africa, a legislature with limited policy influence, to the United States’ Congress, a policy making legislature, it becomes clear from Congress that political will in employing constitutional power is the most important factor in ensuring legislative engagement in foreign policy decision making.
Notes
1. 31 July 2008, Speaker's Office, National Assembly, Parliament of South Africa. The former speaker currently serves as the National Chairperson of the African National Congress.
2. Stavridis, 2002, p. 1.
3. Act 108 of 1996.
4. S 84(2)(a).
5. S 84(2)(h).
6. S 84(2)(i).
7. S 231.
8. Act 200 of 1993.
9. Section 82(10(i) states that: ‘The President shall be competent to exercise and perform the following powers and functions, namely — to negotiate and sign international agreements’.
10. The President of the Republic of South Africa and Others v Quagliani; The President of the Republic of South Africa and Others v Van Rooyen and Brown; Goodwin v Director- General, Department of Justice and Constitutional Development; (the Speaker of the National Assembly and the Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces intervening) CCT 24/08 (2009). Decided on 21 January 2009.
11. Norton, Citation2005.
12. Lindsay, Citation2003, p. 530.
13. Grantham & George, Citation1988, p. 8.
14. Cutler, Citation2001, pp. 201–229.
15. da Lima & Santos, Citation1998.
16. Paranjpe, 1988, p. 185.
17. Lantaigne, Citation2009.
18. Kesgin & Kaarbo, Citation2009.
19. Article 1 Section 8 of the US Constitution makes several references to Congress's power in international affairs including: to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes; to declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water; to raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years; to provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions.
20. Ornstein, Citation1986, p. 44.
21. Corwin, Citation1957.
22. Crabb, Jr. & Holt Citation1992, p. 59 footnote 12.
23. Mann, p. 4.
24. Mann, p. 9.
25. The President of the Republic of South Africa and Others v Quagliani; The President of the Republic of South Africa and Others v Van Rooyen and Brown; Goodwin v Director- General, Department of Justice and Constitutional Development; (the Speaker of the National Assembly and the Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces intervening) CCT 24/08 (2009). Decided on 21 January 2009.
26. Quagliani, pp. 11–13. See also President of the Republic of South Africa and Others v South African Rugby Football Union and Others [1999] ZACC 11; 2000 (1) SA 1 (CC); 1999 (10).
27. Quagliani, op.cit., p. 19.
28. Quagliani, op.cit., p. 21.
29. Quagliani, op.cit., p. 21.
30. United States v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corp. 299 U.S. 304 (1936).
31. Lindsay and Ripley, Citation1993, p. 19.
32. Article 2 Section 2 states: ‘He (the President) shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law: but the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments’.
33. Lindsay and Ripley, 1993, p. 20.
34. Section 231 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Act 108 of 1996.
35. Lindsay and Ripley, 1993, p. 21.
36. Wehner, 2008.
37. Act 9 of 2009.
38. ‘Progress Report for the Task Team on the Money Bills Amendment Procedure and Related Matters Act (October 2009)’, National Assembly Table, Parliament of South Africa.
39. ‘Progress Report for the Task Team on the Money Bills Amendment Procedure and Related Matters Act (October 2009)’, National Assembly Table, Parliament of South Africa.
40. Hughes, Citation2004.
41. Formerly the Department of Foreign Affairs.
42. Henwood, Citation1997.
43. The President of the Republic of South Africa and Others v Quagliani; The President of the Republic of South Africa and Others v Van Rooyen and Brown; Goodwin v Director-General, Department of Justice and Constitutional Development; (the Speaker of the National Assembly and the Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces intervening) CCT 24/08 (2009), p 16. Decided on 21 January 2009.
44. South African Foreign Policy Discussion Document (1996), Department of Foreign Affairs.
45. Department of International Relations and Cooperation Strategic Plan Citation2009–2012.
46. Department of International Relations and Cooperation Strategic Plan Citation2009–2012, pp. 5–6
47. Act 108 of 1996.
48. Grimmet, Citation1999.
49. Grimmet, Citation1999, p. 22.
50. Weissman, Citation1995, p. 2.
51. Weissman, Citation1995, p .194
52. Hughes, 2004, p. 185.
53. ‘Parliaments and Foreign Policy: The International and South African Experience — A Conference Report’, Centre for Southern African Studies (CSAS), University of the Western Cape, Bellville, September 1995, cited in ibid, p. 185.
54. Hughes, 2004, p. 186
55. Bridgman, 2002, p. 72.
56. McCormick, Citation1993, p.19
57. McCormick, Citation1993, p. 152.
58. Interview with senior House Foreign Affairs Committee staff member, Rayburn Building, Capitol Hill, 25 March 2009. The staff member wished to remain anonymous.
59. McCormick, 1993, pp. 141, 151–152.
60. Crabb, Jr. & Holt, 1992, p. 46.
61. McCormick, 1993, p. 123.
62. Good Hope Chamber, Parliament of South Africa, 10 June 2008.
63. Good Hope Chamber, Parliament of South Africa, 10 June 2008.
64. Thompson, Citation1986, p. 8.
65. Weissman, Citation1995, p. 194.
66. Bridgman, Citation2002.
67. The proportional representation system has been widely discussed. See for example, Mattes, 2002, pp. 22–36 and http://www.eisa.org.za/WEP/sou3.htm (date accessed 30 November 2009).
68. Bridgman, 2002.
69. According to Rosenbaum (1967), the term ‘parliamentary diplomacy’ was coined by Dean Rusk in an article entitled, ‘Parliamentary Diplomacy – Debate vs Negotiation’ in World Affairs Interpreter 20 (1955). According to Rosenbaum, while some writers accredit the term to Philip Jessop, Jessop himself credits Rusk in ‘Parliamentary Diplomacy, “Receuil des Cours”’, Hague Academy of International Law, 89 (1958), p. 185.
70. Joint Rules Committee, 2006.
71. See ‘Guidelines (minimum standards) for relations between governments and parliaments on international trade issues’, adopted at the Annual 2008 Session of the Parliamentary Conference on the WTO, Geneva, 11–12 September 2008, http://www.ipu.org/splz-e/trade08/guidelines.pdf (date accessed 30 November 2009).
72. ‘Report of the Independent Panel Assessment of Parliament’, 2009.
73. ‘Report of the Independent Panel Assessment of Parliament’, 2009, p. 78.
74. McCormick, Citation1993, p. 19.