QUESTIONS AND
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Section 1
Law and Study skills
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2017
SECTION 1: LAW AND SKILLS
QUESTION 1
1 “The point of departure for every law student is an understanding of the concept of
law.”
1.1Explain the difference between law and morality or religion. (3)
Morality is defined as beliefs pertaining to the differences between right and wrong or good and bad
behaviour.
Laws are the rules a country or community mandates its citizens follow in order to relate society.
Religion is a structure of faith and worship. It’s a belief system based on a supernatural power.
1.2Illustrate, with examples how the concepts “law” and “rules” are generally confused
by ordinary citizens or non-lawyers. (3)
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QUESTION 2
2. TEXT A: “Court doing a sterling job in stopping South Africa’s slide to gangster state”
(Mosibudi Mangena, Sowetan, May 10 2017)
You don’t thank birds for flying or fish for swimming because that’s what they are supposed to do.
But we have to doff our collective hats as citizens of this country to the courts. They are doing a
sterling job in pushing back the slide towards a gangster state. The executive wing of the state
has
gone rogue and predatory and the legislative wing has failed to hold the executive to account.
The
judiciary repeatedly rapped both on the knuckles and ordered them to do the right thing. Even if
that is the job of the judiciary in a constitutional democracy, it is still proper to acknowledge the
good work the courts are doing. For years, the executive obfuscated, ducked and dived over the
shenanigans involving about R246-million spent to upgrade the president’s private homestead at
Nkandla. Parliament did the same, establishing committees to stonewall all attempts to
investigate
the issue and it tried to find ways to whitewash the shameful conduct of the president.
2.1 With reference to the extract, explain the concept “social contract”, and role played
by
citizens in a democratic state. (3)
A social contract is an agreement between the people of a state and the government of a state.
The people agree to follow certain rules made by the government. These rules usually are called
laws.
Laws help to make sure people have rights and their rights are protected.
One kind of social contract is a constitution.
A constitution says how decisions are made, and sets limits on the powers of leaders and other
leaders
and other people who have authority.
A citizen in a democratic state should have the duty to vote.
A citizen should have an obligation to understand the powers and duties of the government.
A citizen should have the responsibility of knowing his or her rights.
A citizen should know who his or her representatives are.
A citizen should assume the responsibility of being informed about the issues that the effect the
country as a whole, for example the economy.
A citizen is also a citizen of the world and as such, should be informed about the major issues
that affect other countries.
A citizen should be concerned and informed about the local conditions, those that affect him or her
mostly directly, what a city is doing about urban blight or homeless people.
A citizen should be willing to willing to pay taxes.
A citizen should have a duty to obey the law.
A citizen must support public education in every way possible, through the payment of taxes,
through
local volunteer efforts, through affording this system the respect to which it should be entitled.
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2.2 Differentiate between “state” and “country”. (2)
State
Refers to a large governing area within a country.
Can also sometimes be used to refer to the whole country.
It can be an area within the constraints of a country, and the subject to the country’s government
or it can be used as a term to refer to the country as a whole.
Country
Refers to a large nation with its own government and economy
It is basically an area or region that has boundaries that separates them from other countries and
also have their own governments.
It can also be defined as an area or region of land that has borders.
Alternatively, a sovereign state is a country. The terms are synonymous. A State is a system or entity.
The term “State” is used to refer to a smaller region that is part of the country. A country is subdivided
into smaller regions called states.
2.3 In the extract, Mosibudi Mangena consistently used the term “state”. Would it make
any
difference had he used the term “government” instead? Give some reasons to
support
your answer . (2)
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