SKWEYIYA J avenue open to parties asserting the rights of children in our legal system. Importantly, when a court engages in abstract constitutional review under section 38 of the Constitution, as when this Court engages in the review of bills, the authority of the judiciary is, in the words of this Court, “mandated by the Constitution.”16 [225] In our constitutional order it is appropriate for litigants to launch facial challenges to the constitutionality of legislation, and for courts to hear such challenges where it is in the interests of justice. It is quite another thing for a judge, of his own accord, to raise questions about the constitutionality of provisions which do not arise on the facts of the case before him. [226] Moreover, in the abstract review procedures authorised by the Constitution, the abstract challenge is the very dispute in the case. Consequently, the Court in those instances does not, while conducting such abstract review, neglect its core responsibility to resolve disputes before it. By way of example, when the President refers a bill to this Court for a decision on its constitutionality – a classic case of constitutionally contemplated abstract review – the constitutionality of the bill is the only live issue before the Court. [227] Conversely, in a matter like the one before us, the live dispute – the criminal cases of Messrs Phaswane and Mokoena – was placed on hold while largely irrelevant constitutional issues took centre stage. Consequently, the core responsibility of the 16 Doctors for Life above n 11 at para 37; 1417D-E. 114