NGCOBO J court. In Zuma,104 the Court examined the constitutionality of the presumption relating to the admissibility of confessions in criminal trials. Kentridge J stated that “[t]he presumption of innocence [in section 35(3)(h) of the Constitution] cannot depend on the exercise of discretion.”105 On the other hand, the Court has often endorsed the exercise of discretion by judicial officers as compatible with the applicable constitutional obligation at issue.106 [120] The importance of judicial discretion cannot be gainsaid. Discretion permits judicial officers to take into account the need for tailoring their decisions to the unique facts and circumstances of particular cases. There are many circumstances where the mechanical application of a rule may result in an injustice. What is required is individualised justice, that is, justice which is appropriately tailored to the needs of the individual case. It is only through discretion that the goal of individualised justice can be achieved. Individualised justice is essential to the proper administration of justice. As Dean Pound pointed out some fifty years ago: “in no legal system, however minute and detailed its body of rules, is justice administered wholly by rule and without any recourse to the will of the judge and his personal sense of what should be done to achieve a just result in the case before him.”107 104 S v Zuma and Others [1995] ZACC 1; 1995 (2) SA 642 (CC); 1995 (4) BCLR 401 (CC). 105 Id at para 28. 106 See for example S v Dlamini; S v Dladla and Others; S v Joubert; S v Schietekat [1999] ZACC 8; 1999 (4) SA 623 (CC); 1999 (7) BCLR 771 (CC) at para 50; Sanderson v Attorney-General, Eastern Cape [1997] ZACC 18; 1998 (2) SA 38 (CC); 1997 (12) BCLR 1675 (CC) at para 30; and Shabalala and Others v Attorney-General of the Transvaal and Another [1995] ZACC 12; 1996 (1) SA 725 (CC); 1995 (12) BCLR 1593 (CC) at para 55. 107 Cited in Davis Discretionary Justice: A Preliminary Inquiry (Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge 1969) at 17. 63