Dr Richard Stevens (Editor) and Prof Gerhard Lubbe
Professor Gerhard Lubbe’s outstanding career as legal academic was celebrated at the launch of a special edition of the Stellenbosch Law Review on 15 September 2016 in the Ou Hoofgebou.
The main speaker at the event was former Judge of Appeal, Fritz Brand. Judge Brand shared personal recollections about his former classmate and enlightened the audience with an exposition of the considerable impact which Professor Lubbe’s views have had on our legal development.
Dr Richard Stevens, editor of the special edition, handed Professor Lubbe a bound copy, and Professor Jacques du Plessis, who initiated the project to honour Professor Lubbe, further addressed the audience on his legal method and legacy in the fields of private law in general and contract law in particular.
Professor Lubbe was Dean of the Law Faculty from 2007 to 2012, and currently is a Research Fellow in the Department of Private Law. Upon his retirement in 2014 he had served the Faculty as Professor for four decades, the longest term of any person in the Faculty’s almost 100 year-old history.
The special edition contains the following contributions, which cover a broad range of topics in the law of contract and related disciplines:
- ‘The Expanding Circle of Contract Law’ by Jan Smits, Professor of Private Law at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands
- ‘The Role of Good Faith, Equity and Fairness in the South African Law of Contract: A Further Instalment’ by Judge Fritz Brand, formerly of the Supreme Court of Appeal
- ‘On Constitutive Formalities, Estoppel and Breaking the Rules’ by Franziska Myburgh, Senior Lecturer in Private law at Stellenbosch University
- ‘Agreements in Restraint of Cession: Time for a new Approach’ by Dale Hutchison, Professor of Private Law at the University of Cape Town
- ‘The Right of an Attorney to claim Payment of Costs from a Third Party’ by Jacques du Plessis, Distinguished Professor of Private Law at Stellenbosch University
- ‘Die Aard en Indeling van Kontrakbreuk’ by MFB Reinecke, Professor Emeritus, University of Johannesburg
- ‘The Principle of Reciprocity in Continuous Contracts Like Lease: What is and should be the Role of the Exceptio Non Adimpleti Contractus (Defence of the Unfulfilled Contract)?’ by Tjakie Naudé, Professor of Private Law at the University of Cape Town
- ‘Right to Damages in European Contract Law’ by Reinhard Zimmermann, Director of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law
- ‘The Prescription Period Applicable to a Debt Secured by Notarial Bond’ by Max Loubser, Research Fellow, Department of Private Law at Stellenbosch University
- ‘Toegepaste Kontraktereg – Oor Arbitrasies en dies meer’ by PM Nienaber, formerly of the Supreme Court of Appeal
- ‘Subsidiêriteit as Kernbegrip by Verrykingseise, Sekerheidsregte én Statutêr Nie-Uitwinbare Vorderings’ by JC Sonnekus, Professor of Private law, University of Johannesburg
Apart from a bibliography of Professor Lubbe’s publications, the edition also contains a preface with more personal reflections on Gerhard Lubbe as a person and his legal legacy. These are:
- ‘Doctrine and Values: Gerhard Lubbe and the Development of Private Law’ by Jacques du Plessis and Franziska Myburgh of the Law Faculty;
- ‘Gerhard Lubbe: Die Besondere Redelike Man’ by former Dean and Vice-chancellor, Professor Andreas van Wyk;
- ‘After Uiltjie’ (i.e. after Professor J C de Wet), by Advocate Jeremy Gauntlett SC;
- ‘‘n Kamermaat Onthou’, by former Cape High Court judge Ben Griesel and Jannie Otto, non-executive director of PSG Financial Services Ltd; and
- ‘Gerhard Lubbe as Lecturer and Leader’, by Professors Sonia Human and Geo Quinot, respectively Dean and Vice-dean of the Law Faculty.