What Ruth Bader Ginsburg thought the US could learn from South Africa’s modern constitution 

On 22 April 1996, with just two weeks to go before the deadline, the writers of the South African Constitution had reached another impasse. They’d managed to whittle down the list of 68 issues that needed to be settled, but several sticking points remained.

Amongst these were disputes about the death penalty, the property clause, and the appointment of judges and the attorney-general. Addressing both issues of governance and human rights, these would end up resolved and become some of the markers of what has been described as the “world’s best constitution“.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the US Supreme Court justice who died at 87 on Sept.18,  lauded South Africa’s constitution publicly on more than one occasion for dealing with a country’s modern challenges.

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