Chief Justice of South Africa to talk on Constitution and Socio-Economic Rights

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EMBARGOED UNTIL 00:01HRS WEDNESDAY 11TH JUNE 2008

Friday 6 June 2008

On Wednesday 11 June, to open a conference on ‘Adjudicating Socio-Economic Rights’ organized by the Foundation for Law, Justice and Society in Oxford, the Chief Justice of South Africa Pius Langa will address the relationship between the entrenchment and enforceability of socio-economic rights in South Africa. He will argue that the Constitution is best understood as a manifesto for positive transformation towards an equal society, and that in order to achieve this equality, “judges should approach human rights adjudication so as to uplift the underprivileged”.

The lecture will serve as a focus point for a two-day workshop attended by an international panel of pre-eminent professors and legal professionals, who will debate the role of Courts in enforcing socio-economic rights. The workshop will take a global perspective, with case studies from Central Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia.

The Chief Justice’s opening lecture on the South African experience will propose a “radical commitment to the state provision of services to all and the levelling of the economic playing fields that were so drastically skewed by the Apartheid system…. Our chosen means to these ends are affirmative action measures and the entrenchment of socio-economic rights”.

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Notes for editors

Keynote Lecture:

Transformative Constitutionalism and Socio-Economic Rights

Chief Justice Pius Langa, Chief Justice of South Africa

5.30 pm, Wednesday 11th June

Milner Hall, Rhodes House, South Parks Rd, Oxford OX1 3RG

For further information, including details of the workshop programme and participants, please visit the Foundation for Law, Justice and Society’s website at: http://www.fljs.org/NE

Pius Langa was appointed to the bench in 1994 by Nelson Mandela, and was elevated to Chief Justice of South Africa in 2005 by Thabo Mbeki. As Chief Justice, Langa is chairperson of the Judicial Service Commission and is also the current chairperson of the Southern African Judges Commission, a forum of Chief Justices in Southern and East Africa. He is also a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration.

The Foundation for Law, Justice and Society is an independent institution affiliated with the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies at the University of Oxford.

Founded in 2005, the mission of the Foundation is to study, reflect on and promote an understanding of the role that law plays in society. This is achieved by analysing issues of contemporary interest and importance through its three programmes:

• The Social Contract Revisited
• Courts and the Making of Public Policy
• Rule of Law in China: Chinese Law and Business
   

The Foundation draws on the work of scholars and researchers, and aims to make its work easily accessible to practitioners and professionals, whether in government, business, or the law.

http://www.fljs.org

For more information, please contact Phil Dines on

07809 219 543 (mobile)

01865 284433 (day)

01865 209163 (evening)

phil.dines@fljs.org