The upper campus of the University of Cape Town,where O'Regan studied for five years,worked as a lecturer at the start of her career,and is now an honorary professor.
In 1985,O'Regan went to London to do a PhD at the London School of Economics on interdicts restraining strikes.[5] On her return to South Africa in 1988,she worked at the Labour Law Unit and then became an associate professor at the University of Cape Town.[5] She was a founder member of the Law,Race and Gender Research project and the Institute for Development Law at UCT;advised the African National Congress (of which she was a non-active member from 1991)[6] on land claims legislation,working with Geoff Budlender,Aninka Claassens and Derek Hanekom;[7] and served as a trustee of the Legal Resources Centre Trust.[1] She co-edited No Place to Rest:Forced Removals and the Law in South Africa and contributed to A Charter for Social Justice:A Contribution to the South African Bill of Rights Debate.[1]
O'Regan wrote several judgments on labour law,in which she had specialised as an attorney and academic. She wrote two judgments—one in 1999 and one in 2007—in the ongoing litigation between the South African National Defence Union and the South African National Defence Force,as well as NUMSA v Bader Bop,[16] a judgment dealing with the subject of her PhD thesis:the right to strike. Her 2001 judgment on the relationship between administrative law and labour law,Fredericks v MEC for Education and Training,Eastern Cape,[17] has effectively been overturned[18][19]—to almost unanimous disapproval by commentators.[20][21][22] In Sidumo v Rustenburg Platinum Mines Ltd,O'Regan wrote separately to emphasise,in agreement with the majority judgment of Navsa AJ,her law-clinic colleague of thirty years earlier,that administrative law applies to labour law disputes.[23]
In the law of delict,O'Regan's contribution has been significant. In 2002,she wrote Khumalo v Holomisa,[24] one of the Court's first judgments on defamation law and arguably its only judgment applying the Bill of Rights directly to private parties. In 2004,she delivered the Metrorail judgment,[25] which holds that Metrorail has a duty to ensure the safety of commuters on its trains and is regarded as an "exemplar" by international commentators for its protection of the right to personal security.[26] And in 2005,most famously,O'Regan gave judgment in K v Minister of Safety and Security,finding the state liable to compensate a plaintiff who was raped by a police officer.[27] The judgment's radical expansion of the test for vicarious liability,following Bazley v Curry and Lister v Hesley Hall Ltd,was celebrated by women's rights groups[28][29] but criticised by some academics.[30][31] It has been approved and applied by the Court subsequently.[32] The judgment is also still cited for its approach to the development of the common law and the use of comparative law.[33] Finally,in Steenkamp NO v Provincial Tender Board,another case on the delictual liability of public authorities,O'Regan co-wrote a dissent (with Langa CJ) that would have held the state liable for pure economic loss caused to the winner of an unlawfully awarded tender.[34]
O'Regan's fifteen-year term ended in October 2009. Her last judgment for the Court,Mazibuko v City of Johannesburg,[40] on the right to water,proved highly controversial. For some,it was a perceptively restrained summation of the Court's socio-economic rights jurisprudence;for others,it was a "disappointing" and "profoundly conservative" failure by the Court to come to the aid of South Africa's poorest communities.[41][42][43]
Nevertheless,O'Regan was hailed on her retirement as a "stalwart" of the Court,"among its most industrious,as well as progressive,members".[44] In the view of Johann Kriegler,her long-standing colleague,she was "the most outstanding success of the Constitutional Court".[45]Edwin Cameron has said she is "one of the finest minds ever appointed as a judge in South Africa".[46] After O'Regan retired,along with Pius Langa,Yvonne Mokgoro and Albie Sachs,these four founding members of the Court were replaced by PresidentJacob Zuma's first raft of senior judicial appointees.[47] This significant change in the Court's composition was seen by some as marking the start of its decline.[48]
In March 2009,the South African government refused a visa to the Dalai Lama to attend a peace conference.[49] This perceived capitulation by the ruling African National Congress to pressure from China was widely condemned,[50] including by then Minister of HealthBarbara Hogan.[51] O'Regan also spoke out,publicly agreeing with Hogan and expressing her "dismay" that "human rights does not seem to enter into the picture of some foreign affairs decisions that are made".[52][53] O'Regan was heavily criticised by the government and the Black Lawyers Association,which threatened to lay a misconduct complaint against her for "concern[ing] herself with politics".[53]
↑ S v Bhulwana, S v Gwadiso(1995) ZACC 11; 1996 (1) SA 388 (CC).
↑ Premier, Province of Mpumalanga and Another v Executive Committee of the Association of Governing Bodies of State Aided Schools: Eastern Transvaal(1998) ZACC 20; 1999 (2) SA 91 (CC).
↑ Permanent Secretary of the Department of Education of the Government of the Eastern Cape Province and Another v Ed-U-College (PE) (Section21)(2000) ZACC 23; 2001 (2) SA 1 (CC).
↑ Dawood and Another v Minister of Home Affairs and Others; Shalabi and Another v Minister of Home Affairs and Others; Thomas and Another v Minister of Home Affairs and Others(2000) ZACC 8; 2000 (3) SA 936 (CC).
↑ Bato Star Fishing (Pty) Ltd v Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism and Others(2004) ZACC 15; 2004 (4) SA 490 (CC).
↑ African Christian Democratic Party v Electoral Commission and Others(2006) ZACC 1; 2006 (3) SA 305 (CC).
↑ Richter v The Minister for Home Affairs and Others (with the Democratic Alliance and Others Intervening, and with Afriforum and Another as Amici Curiae)(2009) ZACC 3; 2009 (3) SA 615 (CC).
↑ National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa and Others v Bader Bop (Pty) Ltd and Another(2002) ZACC 30; 2003 (3) SA 513 (CC).
↑ Fredericks and Others v MEC for Education and Training, Eastern Cape and Others(2001) ZACC 6; 2002 (2) SA 693 (CC).
↑ Chirwa v Transnet Limited and Others(2007) ZACC 23; 2008 (4) SA 367 (CC).
↑ Gcaba v Minister for Safety and Security and Others(2009) ZACC 26; 2010 (1) SA 238 (CC).
↑ Fagan, Anton (2009). "The confusions of K". South African Law Journal. 126.
↑ Wagener, Stephen (2008). "K v Minister of Safety and Security and the increasingly blurred line between personal and vicarious liability". South African Law Journal. 125.
↑ F v Minister of Safety and Security and Another(2011) ZACC 37; 2012 (1) SA 536 (CC).
↑ H v Fetal Assessment Centre(2014) ZACC 34; 2015 (2) SA 193 (CC).
↑ Steenkamp NO v Provincial Tender Board of the Eastern Cape(2006) ZACC 16; 2007 (3) SA 121 (CC).
↑ Prinsloo v Van der Linde and Another(1997) ZACC 5; 1997 (3) SA 1012 (CC).
↑ Satchwell v President of the Republic of South Africa and Another(2003) ZACC 2; 2003 (4) SA 266 (CC).
↑ Minister of Home Affairs and Another v Fourie and Another(2005) ZACC 19; 2006 (1) SA 524 (CC).
↑ S v Jordan and Others (Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Task Force and Others as Amici Curiae)(2002) ZACC 22; 2002 (6) SA 642 (CC).
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