THE recent tobacco judgment in the British American Tobacco case in the Western Cape High Court, penned by judges Ndita, Steyn and Slingers, makes for troubling jurisprudence.

The optics look terrible. At its core, the court bends its jurisprudence for the benefit of a most malignant force – the tobacco lobby.

The reasoning, if discussed in a meeting of worldwide experts in a comparative constitutional law colloquium, it would be deliberated during a panel labelled “comedy hour” if