By Carmel Rickard<\/p>\n
Twenty years is a lifetime in the law, especially when outdated laws and legal concepts have to be re-considered in the light of modern constitutional principles.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s one reason that a notice of appeal, filed by the Namibian Government last week, could prove so interesting to monitor.<\/p>\n
The appeal is against an important decision delivered by High Court judge Thomas Masuku in October. The court found in favour of Phillip Luehl, a Namibian man who had asked that his child, born of a legal surrogacy arrangement with a South African woman, should be given Namibian citizenship.<\/p>\n
What made the application something really out of the ordinary was that the father is married, in terms of SA law, to another man, who is a Mexican, and not a Namibian. This introduced the spectre of gay marriage, not to mention anti-gay discrimination, into the case, though whether it ought to have done so will be up to the Supreme Court to decide when it finally hears the appeal.<\/p>\n