O’REGAN J [15] Our Constitution requires a court when developing the common law to promote the spirit, purport and objects of the Constitution.11 The pervasive normative effect of our Constitution was acknowledged by this Court in Carmichele v Minister of Safety and Security and Another12 where it held that ─ “Our Constitution is not merely a formal document regulating public power. It also embodies, like the German Constitution, an objective, normative value system. As was stated by the German Federal Constitutional Court: ‘The jurisprudence of the Federal Constitutional Court is consistently to the effect that the basic right norms contain not only defensive subjective rights for the individual but embody at the same time an objective value system which, as a fundamental constitutional value for all areas of the law, acts as a guiding principle and stimulus for the Legislature, Executive and Judiciary.’ The same is true of our Constitution. The influence of the fundamental constitutional values on the common law is mandated by s 39(2) of the Constitution. It is within the matrix of this objective normative value system that the common law must be developed.” (footnotes omitted) In addition to section 39(2) of the Constitution, section 8 of the Bill of Rights makes it plain that the judiciary is bound by the provisions of the Bill of Rights in the performance of its functions.13 11 The cumulative effect of these constitutional Section 39(2) of the Constitution reads─ “When interpreting any legislation, and when developing the common law or customary law, every court, tribunal or forum must promote the spirit, purport and objects of the Bill of Rights.” 12 2001 (4) SA 938 (CC); 2001 (10) BCLR 995 (CC) at para 54. 13 Section 8(1) of the Constitution. 10