Abstract
LL.M. (Labour Law)
A university is a community of adults in which close personal relationships between adults can develop. These institutions of higher learning recognise the need for policies prohibiting sexual harassment but few have addressed the subtle issues surrounding consensual and special amorous relationships between academic staff members and students and whether they have the right to regulate private behaviour between adults.
The aim of this minor dissertation is to explore the issue of the university having a responsibility to ensure that it maintains an environment for study free from sexual harassment.
The question lies in whether the university policies should prohibit not only sexual harassment but also consensual sexual engagement and special relationships between academic staff and students, taking into account the development of the legal theory of sexual harassment as a violation of the fundamental rights of workers and the emergence of employment law both in the United States of America (USA) and South Africa.
The issues herein will be the debate against stricter prohibitions on relationships with the argument of engaging the rights of students to enter into relationships that are not prohibited by law, the question of freedom of association and privacy and the enforcement and implementation of such policies.
It will become clear that the law of employment discrimination stands in sharp contrast to the understanding of academic freedom and these parameters may well be lost in translation when entering the academic world.
This then raises the argument about whether any consent was real and voluntarily bestowed, with factors such as power, undue influence, fear and favour playing major roles.