30 Years of South Africa’s Constitutional Court: RELEASE OF COLLECTION
Just over 30 years ago, South Africa’s Constitutional Court released its first judgment. To mark this occasion and the extraordinary impact the Court has had on South Africa, the Constitutional Court Review journal has just released its 15th volume. The volume includes a rich collection of peer-reviewed articles on a variety of subjects relating to 30 years of the Constitutional Court’s case law.
The idea behind the volume is articulated by its current editor-in-chief, Prof David Bilchitz, director of the South African Institute for Advanced Constitutional Public, Human Rights and International Law (SAIFAC), a centre of the University of Johannesburg. He states: “The first goal of the volume is to celebrate the work of the Constitutional Court which has developed the very architecture of our constitutional democracy. The second goal is to interrogate the work of the court: through critical academic reflection, we continually evaluate the foundations that have been set for South African society and whether they in fact conform to the society we wish to become”.
Volume 15 of the Constitutional Court Review seeks to accomplish these aims through a number of symposia where papers deal with similar themes and stand-alone contribution. The symposia relate to current debates surrounding transformative constitutionalism and what it entails for the South African constitutional project, examinations of the resilience and performance of the Constitutional Court, cutting-edge issues in the sphere of civil-political rights, innovative engagements with the Court’s jurisprudence on socio-economic rights, as well as fresh considerations of the use by the Court of international and foreign law. There are also several discrete articles that engage with a range of important subject areas including, amongst others, the legacy of the Constitutional Court’s jurisprudence in spheres of law such as criminal law, unjustified enrichment, land reform and customary law.
The idea for the volume was initially proposed by the late Prof Stu Woolman, founder of the journal, who developed the concept with Prof Bilchitz. Unfortunately, Prof Woolman, one of the most brilliant constitutional academics in the country, passed away in July 2024, passing the baton onto the remaining Constitutional Court review editorial team who have sought to honor his legacy in ensuring the volume meets his high standards. A conference will be held on 19-20 January 2026. that seeks to celebrate the life and work of Prof Woolman – and the next volume of the journal will be dedicated to publishing essays that relate to themes in his work.
“A wide-ranging volume such as this with such excellent contributions does not spontaneously emerge and it is important to thank numerous people involved including the authors, peer-reviewers, editors and our publisher NISC” noted Editor-in-Chief, Prof. David Bilchitz.
The journal is published Open Access and can be viewed here.