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FACULTY NEWS
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SOCIO ECONOMIC RIGHTS BOOK LAUNCHED
Prof Sandra Liebenberg's book - Socio-Economic Rights - Adjudication under a Transformative Constitution (Juta & Co) was launched at the Centre for the Book on Thursday, 29 July 2010. The launch was attended by a cross-section of academics, Deans of the three law faculties of the Western Cape, former Constitutional Court Justices, members of the Cape Bench, Bar and Side Bar, members of government and chapter 9 institutions, as well as students and representatives of various NGOs.
Adv Geoff Budlender SC was the guest speaker at the event. He described the book as marking "the emergence of a systemic jurisprudence of social and economic rights in South Africa" and stated that he thought that "this publication would become the primary text on which we rely, and the primary text to which foreign courts and scholars will refer when they want to understand social and economic rights in South Africa". For a full transcript of Adv Budlender's remarks at the launch Click here
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From left to right: Lynne du Toit (CEO, Juta & Co); Kim Robinson (Executive Director, Student Sponsorship Programme); former Chief Justice Arthur Chaskalson; former justice of the Constitutional Court Laurie Ackermann; Prof Sandra Liebenberg; Adv Geoff Budlender SC; Mr Andries Nel, Deputy-Minister of Justice; Edmund Beerwinkel (Head of Juta Law); Ute Kuhlman (commissioning editor of Prof Liebenberg's book) |
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Prof Sandra Liebenberg signing copies of her book at the launch |
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STATE COMMERCIAL ACTIVITY BOOK LAUNCHED
The book State Commercial Activity: A Legal Framework, written by the Law Faculty's Geo Quinot and published by Juta & Co, was launched at a function in Cape Town on 12 May 2010.
The guest speaker was Judge Clive Plasket of the Eastern Cape High Court. The book analyses the state's conduct as a market participant from a legal perspective. It focuses on the judicial control of such state conduct and puts forward a legal framework in terms of which to understand state commercial activity.
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From left to right: Justice Kate O'Regan (with back to camera); Advocate Geoff Budlender SC; Advocate Wim Trengove SC; Advocate Steven Budlender; Advocate Gilbert Marcus SC |
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Judge Clive Plasket & Prof Geo Quinot |
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EQUALITY BOOK LAUNCHED
The book Equality in the Workplace: Reflections from South Africa and Beyond, edited by the Law Faculty's Ockert Dupper and Christoph Garbers, was launched at a function in Cape Town on 25 March 2010. The guest speakers were Justice Kate O'Regan, former justice of the Constitutional Court, and Prof Sir Bob Hepple, former Master of Clare College, Cambridge and a contributor to the book. Justice Albie Sachs, a former justice of the Constitutional Court was also in attendance as was joined by approximately fifty other attendees, including judges, academics, practitioners and members of the diplomatic corps in Cape Town.
The contributions to the book were originally presented at a conference held at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS) in September 2008. The conference was attended by about 100 prominent international and local experts, including Professor Sir Bob Hepple (Cambridge) Professors Sandra Fredman (Oxford), Manfred Weiss (Germany), Judy Fudge (Canada), Kamala Sankaran (India), Catherine Albertyn (Witwatersrand), Paul Benjamin (Cape Town) and Charles Ngwena (Free State). It was hosted by the Centre for International and Comparative Labour- and Social Security Law (CICLASS) at the US in cooperation with the Institute for Development and Labour Law at UCT and the Social Law Project at UWC. The event and the book, published by Juta Law, was sponsored by the Konrad-Adenauer Foundation (KAS).
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Stonehage First Year Scholarship
We are pleased to announce that this year 19 first year students will benefit from the Stonehage First Year Scholarship scheme.
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Internationally acclaimed human rights expert visits poverty project
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Malcolm Langford, Director of the Socio-Economic Rights Programme at the University of Oslo in Norway, visited the OSP project on Combating Poverty, Homelessness and Socio-Economic Vulnerability under the Constitution for 2 weeks during February. Langford has previously been Director of the Human Rights and Development Research Group and an advisor to many UN treaty bodies, including the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN-Habitat, the WHO and the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. He was the Senior Legal Officer at the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) from 2001 to 2006 and has been a Visiting Fellow a the University of Mannheim and the University of New South Wales. He has published widely in the fields of law, economics and development and he recently edited the book Social Rights Jurisprudence: Emerging Trends in International and Comparative Law that was published with Cambridge University Press during 2008.
During his stay Mr. Langford presented 3 guest lectures to the postgraduate students of the project on the judicial enforcement of socio-economic rights, the Millennium Development Goals, and methodology and interdisciplinary research. His vast international experience and almost encyclopaedic knowledge of human rights violations from around the world added tremendous depth to the discussions and showed the postgraduate students how important it is to keep abreast with international developments in their respective fields of research. He also worked with some of the postgraduate students individually on their research proposal.
Malcolm Langford concluded his stay in Stellenbosch with a presentation on A case of Commercial Cosmopolitanism? International Investment Disputes, Human Rights and Forresti v South Africa. This case concerns the alleged violation by the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act 28 of 2002 of certain provisions in two Bilateral Investment Treaties that were concluded with South Africa by Italy, Belgium and Luxembourg. The claimants in this case own two granite mining operations in South Africa and control approximately 80% of the granite export in South Africa. The claimants claim that the conversion of their metal rights into licenses was an act of expropriation and that the requisite compliance with black economic empowerment amongst the criteria or the assessment of the granting of licenses amounted to discrimination and unfair and inequitable treatment. Mr. Langford assisted in drafting the amicus brief in this case.
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