News

It is with “great sadness” that Stellenbosch University (SU) received the news that former Chief Justice Dr Arthur Chaskalson had passed away on 1 December 2012, Prof Russel Botman, Rector and Vice-Chancellor, said over the weekend. Chaskalson, who was the first President of South Africa’s Constitutional Court, received an honorary doctorate from the University in [...]

The charge by the government that the courts obstruct transformation has been rejected by Adv Wim Trengove, SC, a leading constitutional law lawyer. Delivering the keynote address at the launch of a new book, Law and Poverty: Perspectives from South Africa and Beyond (Juta & Co), in Stellenbosch on Thursday evening (31 May 2012), Trengove [...]

The ability of the law to respond effectively to systemic poverty and inequality in society is dealt with comprehensively in a new book edited by Professors Sandra Liebenberg and Geo Quinot of Stellenbosch University’s (SU) Law Faculty. (Click here for a video). Titled Law and Poverty: Perspectives from South Africa and Beyond (Juta & Co), [...]

Public Protector Adv Thuli Madonsela has welcomed Pres Jacob Zuma’s recent decision to appoint a commission of enquiry into the government’s controversial arms deal, calling corruption “a crime against the poor”. “It’s a good idea, especially in light of the new evidence that has emerged in Germany and the United Kingdom,” she said last night [...]

Legislation has to be tested continually to ensure that it complies with the requirements of South Africa’s democratic and transformative constitution, Judge Denis Davis of the Western Cape High Court said at the recent Colloquium on Law and Poverty at Stellenbosch University. This three-day event was hosted by the Law Faculty’s HOPE Project initiative on [...]

Constitutional rights regarding tenure were discussed at the recent Colloquium on Law and Poverty at Stellenbosch University (SU). The three-day colloquium, which was hosted by the Faculty of Law, ended on Tuesday [31 May]. It was part of the HOPE Project initiative on Combating Poverty, Homelessness and Socio-Economic Vulnerability under the Constitution. Mr Gustav Muller, [...]

The high level of poverty and large wealth gap in South Africa pose a serious threat to democracy, the rule of law and national reconciliation, Former Chief Justice Pius Langa warned last night [30 May 2011] at a Colloquium on Law and Poverty hosted by Stellenbosch University’s (SU) Law Faculty. “Not enough attention has been [...]

Transnational businesses are getting away with injustices against the global poor because the Westphalian nation-state system is shielding them from valid claims by the dispossessed, argued philosopher Prof Nancy Fraser at the opening of the Law Faculty’s Colloquium on Law and Poverty yesterday [29 May 2011]. “We airbrush away all actors, processes and mechanisms that [...]

Local and international legal heavyweights are set to congregate at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies (STIAS) from 29 to 31 May 2011 for a Colloquium on Law and Poverty being hosted by the Law Faculty of Stellenbosch University. Former Chief Justice Pius Langa will be the guest of honour at a dinner on Monday, [...]

“I can’t think of a better role model for our law students today,” Professor Sandy Liebenberg of Stellenbosch University’s (SU) Law Faculty said yesterday (17 February 2011) of Mr Kobus Pienaar, a lawyer and ex-Matie who passed away on 4 February. She dedicated her lecture at the first Stellenbosch Forum of the year to Pienaar, [...]

You are hereby cordially invited to the first Stellenbosch Forum lecture of the year. The Stellenbosch Forum lecture series was started in 1990, and provides regular opportunities to staff and students at Stellenbosch University (SU), as well as interested people from the public, to learn more about the relevant, world class research that are being [...]

By including socio-economic rights as enforceable rights in the Bill of Rights, South Africans acknowledged poverty is a matter of deep constitutional concern, writes Sandra Liebenberg, HF Oppenheimer Professor in Human Rights Law at Stellenbosch University Faculty of Law, in an article that was published in the Cape Times on Saturday, 11 September 2010, on [...]

Prof Sandra Liebenberg’s book – Socio-Economic Rights – Adjudication under a Transformative Constitution (Juta & Co, 2010) was recently launched at the Centre for the Book in Cape Town. 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 [...]