Why the high and magistrates’ courts should also adopt ‘Justice’ as honorific

Every time a South African advocate rises in the high court, they address the bench as “My Lord” or “My Lady” — and every time they do, they speak the language of a feudal England that has been gone for centuries.

- By Francois Lion-Cachet

In the magistrates’ courts, the presiding officer is addressed as “Your Worship”. The words come reflexively, but they are worth reconsidering because the order they symbolise is not the one our Constitution announces.