Copyright and Transformation in the Age of Constitutional Democracy

South African copyright law has been the subject of sustained controversy and contestation in recent years, primarily as a result of protracted and ongoing legislative reform efforts as well as a high-profile constitutional challenge to the regulating statute. Despite being front and centre in the public’s attention, meaningful progress towards aligning copyright law with constitutional imperatives remains limited. This article traces the (lack of) advancement across the three branches of government—legislative, executive and judicial—and examines the likely causes behind each. It concludes that the dominant legal culture bears as much responsibility as foreign trade pressures and divisive stakeholder engagements in Parliament. It argues that the judiciary, in particular, holds significant but underused potential to drive the constitutional transformation of the country’s copyright law.