ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how courts do not bring closure to contentions among individuals, families and society and argues that they may sometimes have good reasons not to do so. Religious laws, given that they are connected to theology and that they are part of broader culture, deal with the human person in its totality vis-vis tensions as to how individuals can cope with outcomes of court cases. Chief Justice Langa noted well that it is no longer sufficient for judges to rely on the say-so of parliament or technical readings of legislation as providing justifications for their decisions but that judges bear the ultimate responsibility to justify their decisions not only by reference to authority, but by reference to ideas and values. While human rights have been defended and developed explicitly in civil society, the Church has also promoted them in the defence of the dignity of the human being.
