Forms of Protection of Constitutional Rights: A Comparative Study across USA, India, and South Africa

The evolution of rights and duties throughout history has intentionally or unintentionally left an impression on society through monetary benefits, socio-political changes, and eventually progression of the State as a welfare state. Over time, the evolution of rights occurred through rights being conferred by the State and inherent rights of every human being. In modern times, the most common and important source of rights and duties of every State and individuals governed by the State is enshrined in a “Constitution” of a state. The Constitution provides a guiding principle and a framework for governance of the State and its subjects. Thus, the rights and duties provided in the Constitution must be looked at from time to time to combat current socio-political changes across the globe. Hence, a comparative study of “Constitutional rights” across certain jurisdictions provides a comprehensive understanding of rights and also provides an avenue to amend the Constitution and the Constitutional rights for ultimately striving the State towards a welfare state. In order to uphold the Constitutional rights, it is important to accord certain protection to those rights, therefore a comparative study understanding the forms of protection to Constitutional Rights upholds the sanctity of the Constitutional Rights. This paper thereby attempts to understand rights, various facets, scope, sources and forms of protection of Constitutional rights across jurisdictions such as the USA, India, and South Africa, and thereby provides a comparative study of various facets of protection of “Constitutional rights” with suggestions across the aforementioned jurisdictions.