ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights confluences and tensions between legal rights and the ‘right to the city’, before considering how constitutional rights have shaped urban governance in South African cities. This is followed by a contemplation of the role of courts as deliberative spaces, as well as of South African courts’ adjudicatory approaches in urban rights disputes. The chapter then considers the impact of court judgments on governance in Johannesburg, as well as on litigants, social movements and the everyday lives of urban residents. In conclusion, it reflects on the notion of urban citizenship emerging from urban rights litigation.
