O’REGAN J consistent and fair. There can be no doubt that it will often be helpful for our courts to consider the approach of other jurisdictions to problems that may be similar to our own. Counsel for the respondent argued that because our common-law principles of delict grew from the system of Roman-Dutch law applied in Holland, a province of the Netherlands, in the 17th century, we should not have regard to judgments or reasoning of other legal systems. He submitted that the conceptual nature of our law of delict, based as it is on general principles of liability, is different from the casuistic character of the law of torts in common-law countries. These differences, he submitted, render reliance on such law dangerous. Counsel is correct in drawing our attention to the different conceptual bases of our law and other legal systems. As in all exercises in legal comparativism, it is important to be astute not to equate legal institutions which are not, in truth, comparable.42 Yet in my view, the approach of other legal systems remains of relevance to us. [35] It would seem unduly parochial to consider that no guidance, whether positive or negative, could be drawn from other legal systems’ grappling with issues similar to those with which we are confronted. Consideration of the responses of other legal systems may enlighten us in analysing our own law, and assist us in developing it further. It is for this very reason that our Constitution contains an express provision authorising courts to consider the law of other countries when interpreting the Bill of Rights.43 It is clear that in looking to the jurisprudence of other countries, all the 42 See, for example, the seminal article by Otto Kahn-Freund “On the uses and misuses of comparative law” (1974) 37 Modern Law Review 1. 43 See section 39(2) of the Constitution above n 11. 25