The University of Stellenbosch, together with the Freie Universität Berlin, hosted a workshop on democracy on 1 November 2012. The workshop was organised by Henk Botha and Dominik Steiger. The event was supported by the Konrad-Adenauer Foundation, the German-South African Lawyers Association and the German-South African Year of Science 2012/2013.
A number of papers, given by various South African and international legal scholars, attempted to come to terms with the deeply contested meaning of democracy in a variety of contexts. These included: the changing nature of citizenship and the demos, the role of human dignity in negotiating the divide between representative and participatory democracy, and the impact of judicial review on democracy. The workshop not only aimed to stimulate constitutional and jurisprudential debate on these topics, but also to advance comparative understanding.
Based on the success of the workshop, the organisers are planning a follow-up event in Berlin in 2014, The workshop papers will also be published in 2013.
On the photo:
Back Row: Lovemore Chiduza (UWC), Justin Ramages (Stell), Professor Danie Brand (Pret), Chris Oxtoby (UCT), Professor Avinash Govindjee (NMMU), Cornelius Hagenmeier (Univen).
Middle Row: Brigite Brandaõ (Stell), Tuuli Karjala (Stell), Janett Feyler, Jana Dittrich, Nicholas Orago (UWC), Professor Sandy Liebenberg(Stell), Professor Geo Quinot (Stell), Hugo Murray (Stell), Professor Eckart Klein (Potsdam), Christina Teichmann (Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung), Professor Karin van Marle (Pret), Deidré Baartman (Stell), Janine Janssen (Stell).
Front Row: Porchia Adonis (UWC), Thabani Matshakaile (Stell), Yvonne Jooste (Stell), Professor Annika Rudman (Stell), Professor Henk Botha (Stell), Dr Dominik Steiger (Freie Universität Berlin), Professor Wessel le Roux (UWC)