Quote of the week
Universal adult suffrage on a common voters roll is one of the foundational values of our entire constitutional order. The achievement of the franchise has historically been important both for the acquisition of the rights of full and effective citizenship by all South Africans regardless of race, and for the accomplishment of an all-embracing nationhood. The universality of the franchise is important not only for nationhood and democracy. The vote of each and every citizen is a badge of dignity and of personhood. Quite literally, it says that everybody counts. In a country of great disparities of wealth and power it declares that whoever we are, whether rich or poor, exalted or disgraced, we all belong to the same democratic South African nation; that our destinies are intertwined in a single interactive polity.
August and Another v Electoral Commission and Others (CCT8/99) [1999] ZACC 3
Call for Papers or Participation – Legal Challenges to Regional Co-operation: The African and European Perspectives
Call For Papers or Participation
We are pleased to announce that the Faculties of Law of the University of Tilburg, Netherlands, and North West University, South Africa, are presenting a one day seminar on Legal Challenges to Regional Co-operation: The African and European Perspectives from 8:30 – 16:00 on Friday 15 January 2010 in the Council Chambers, Institutional Office, North West University, Hoffman Street, Potchefstroom, South Africa.
The purpose of the seminar is to compare experiences in the African Union and European Union and identify legal challenges facing each of these institutions. Possible sub-themes are: Institutional structures Regional local government co-operation Human Rights protection Co-operation in law enforcement and criminal justice systems Regional environmental co-operation.
Academics and practitioners are invited to attend and participate. There will be no registration fee. Tea, coffee and lunch will be provided. Participants are responsible for their own travel and accommodation arrangements. There will be three or four panels and three papers per panel to give presenters and discussants adequate time for constructive engagement. Participants are requested to focus their papers and address the seminar theme. In addition to the general call for individual papers, proposals for panels will also be welcomed. The sub-themes are merely suggestions and all proposals on the main theme will be considered.
Abstracts for papers should please be sent to Professor Stephen de la Harpe (stephen.delaharpe@nwu.ac.za) by Friday, 27 November 2009.
Each presenter will be granted a maximum of twenty minutes for their presentation. A computer and LCD projector are available and presenters who wish to use Microsoft Powerpoint slides to present their papers should save their slides onto a USB drive for this purpose.
Participants are requested to complete the registration form on the next page. Please e-mail this form to stephanie.kotze@nwu.ac.za or fax it to +27 (0)18 299 1923 (for attention: Mrs. S Kotze) by 15 December 2009.
