In the first of a two-part series of blog posts focused on the contested presidential election in Nigeria, Ugochukwu Ezeh considers the existing electoral dispute resolution system and argues that it leaves much to be desired.

In this article Adv. Quentin du Plessis analyzes how the South African Constitutional Court handled the Competition Commission of South Africa v Mediclinic case. The matter was an application for leave to appeal against the judgment and order of the Competition Appeal Court (CAC). In that regard, the Constitutional Court had to answer whether the CAC was in law, correct in interfering as it did with the findings of and remedy given by the Competition Tribunal to prohibit a merger in the private healthcare services sector.

Following his retirement from the Constitutional Court, Justice Sachs penned an award-winning book detailing his experiences on the Bench. In Episode 2 of our interview, he explains the inspiration behind this thought-provoking read and what he hopes readers will take from it.

In 2024, South Sudan will hold elections for the very first time since attaining independence in 2011. Dr. Joseph Geng Akech and Cedonia Victor Legge discuss the challenges of inclusivity in the upcoming elections, amidst various crises such as economic collapse, political instability, and a catastrophic humanitarian situation. The article emphasises the importance of ensuring ethnic and gender inclusivity for legitimate outcomes of the elections.

A “SLAPP” suit is strategic litigation against public participation and has its origin in the United States of America and Canada. Courtney Jones discusses the application of the SLAPP defence in South African law following the Constitutional Court’s judgment in Mineral Sands Resources (Pty) Ltd v Reddell.

The agency problem arises when people in positions of authority fail to act in the best interests of the people they represent. To address this issue, it is necessary to ensure that decisions are not solely made by those in power. Ben Nyabira argues that solutions to this problem lie in public participation.

Over the past two years, the state of Swaziland has been plagued with various human rights violations, including state sponsored violence against the citizenry. In response, civilians have retaliated against members of the police force and the army. Against this background, Angelo Dube argues that the environment in Swaziland may be ripe for the Islamic State’s picking.

In Rafoneke v Minister of Justice and Correctional Services (Rafoneke), the SA Constitutional Court had to consider whether section 24 (2)(b) read with section 115 of the Legal Practice Act 28 of 2014 (LPA) unfairly discriminated against foreign nationals on the basis of citizenship and social origin. Geoffrey Allsop and Ohene Yaw Ampofo-Anti argue that the court did not apply the principle of intersectionality correctly in its finding that these provisions are constitutional.

Corporations increasingly enjoy more rights but face fewer consequences for abusing rights. Erika George argues that a new approach is urgently needed and that constitutional courts should be more concerned with the concentrated power of the private sector and protecting the public space for effective policy making and adjudication.

In the course of digitalisation, economic and other activities are increasingly internationalising and their challenges can thus be less frequently addressed through state constitutions. Although there is no constitutional framework that would allow private power to be effectively constrained at the international level, Johannes Masing argues that a certain uniting basis of constitutionalism across borders may be found in human rights.

Bwanya v Master of the High Court was the first occasion on which the Constitutional Court expressly refused to follow one of its previous decisions. Joshua Davis considers the basis on which it did so and the implications for the doctrine of precedent, and argues that the judgment was ultimately right for the wrong reasons.

Amita Dhanda, a plenary speaker at the World Congress of Constitutional Law reflects on the connection between the rights of liberty and subsistence in light of developments in Indian criminal law.

Gautam Bhatia considers how the Kenyan Supreme Court’s judgment in the BBI matter reflects the complexity of applying the basic structure doctrine in a tiered amendment context, where the amendment process explicitly carves out a high threshold of public participation.

Dr Silvia Suteu argues that the BBI saga raises important questions about the interplay between unamendability and participatory constitution-making, and considers the relevance of the participatory nature of the adoption of Kenya’s 2010 Constitution vis-à-vis the acceptance or rejection of unamendability in the BBI case.

Following the decision of the Kenyan Supreme Court in the matter concerning the BBI Bill, Dr Linda Musumba examines the meaning of “public participation” as required by the Kenyan Constitution.