M.A. (Politics) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

The professorial inaugural lecture is for the university an occasion to celebrate - celebrate in the full meaning of the word, i.e. to perform publicly and duly, to observe and honour with rites and festivities, to publish abroad, praise and extol. Through the custom of the inaugural lecture the university celebrates and affirms its basic function, that of creating, preserving, transmitting and applying knowledge, particularly scientifically-based knowledge. The university appoints to the position of professor one who has attained excellence in the handling of knowledge in her or his discipline, and through a jealous watchfulness over the dignity and esteem of this time-honoured position of excellence amongst scholars, defends the capacity of the university to advance human knowledge and human progress. The University of the Western Cape is particularly honoured to celebrate by way of this address the inauguration of its first ever Professor of Human Rights Law. We take pride from both the position and the incumbent: the post demonstrates our commitment to scholarly relevance, the incumbent to the pursuit of excellence. This university has distinguished itself amongst South African educational institutions for the way that it has grappled with questions of appropriate intellectual and educational responses to the demands of the social and political environment. That search involved debates and contests over what constitutes knowledge or valuable knowledge, over the nature of the process of knowledge production, over the relationship between theory and practice, about autonomy and accountability, about the meaning of "community" and about how the activities of a university are informed by the definition and conception of "community". The decision to establish a chair in Human Rights Law was arrived at as part of that process of searching for the appropriate forms of curricular transformation. South African society with its history of colonial conquest and latterly apartheid rule is one bereft of a rights culture; and where the discussion of a bill of rights and the general establishment of an awareness of human rights had been started in recent times, it has often been motivated by a concern with the protection of traditionally advantaged sectors of society. A university like ours has an obligation to contribute to the debate about and the promotion of human rights in ways which will also be concerned with healing, reparation and reconstruction in this severely brutalised nation. In this address marking his formal assumption of the University of the Western Cape’s Chair in Human Rights Law, Kader Asmal gives testimony of the depth of scholarly rigour and the breadth of humane concern brought to and emanating from this position. The integral coming together of Asmal the international scholar, the anti-apartheid activist of long standing, the seasoned international solidarity worker, the spirited publicist is evidenced in this address which is sure to stand as a signal point of reference in our national debate about this complex subject. The University had been privileged to attract to its staff some of the finest scholars from the ranks of the formerly exiled South Africans; this inaugural ceremony provides the institution with the opportunity to welcome into its midst one of those in the person of Kader Asmal. / Publications of the University of the Western Cape ; series A, no. 64

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of South Africa, Pretoria, 2001.

LL.M. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

A budding author bold enough to have sent his manuscript to Dr Samuel Johnson for appraisal received a reply, so the story goes, in these terms: ‘Sir. Your work is both original and good. Unfortunately the part that is good is not original. And the part that is original is not good. I find it difficult to say anything new or original about the lovable man whose life we celebrate this afternoon and whose memory we thus keep alive. For so much has been said in the tributes previously paid to him, tributes testifying to the place he occupied in the hearts of countless South Africans. What is good should prove easier, however, when it is said of someone whom, at the ceremony held in court soon after his death, Ralph Zulman described, simply and truly, as a good man. So, be it said how it may, what I shall say today about Ernie Wentzel feels good to say. Unless someone who is now a lawyer was acquainted with Ernie during his childhood or schooldays, I can rightly claim, I believe, that none still around knew him for more years than I did. Our long friendship may explain why John Dugard honoured me with the invitation to deliver this lecture. It was certainly my reason for accepting the invitation with alacrity. Ernie and I first met each other 37 years ago, in 1951, when he entered the University of Cape Town, where I too was a student. I happened to be his senior by two years. But I soon got to know him well, for we had a lot in common. We were both enthusiastic student politicians. And we were in the same camp. Our time together on the campus was one of turmoil, not as acute as that which campuses have experienced subsequently, but intense nonetheless since, in addition to all the other strife of the period, the Universities of Cape T own and the W itwatersrand were under an attack that was constant and fierce for their policy of admitting students of every race, and they faced the threat of legislation forbidding them to accept any who was not white without official pennission.

Dr. A.C. Huysamen

With this piece of work an attempt is made to have a objective evaluation of the influence of South Africa's Bill of rights on the common law of Defamation. the following aspects are being highlighted: The general application of the Bill of Rights and its relevant sections; A comparative study of the application of Bill of Rights with special reference to the United States, Canada, India and Germany; The law of Defamation under a new legal order, with specific reference to whether the Bill of Rights does apply to Defamation and if so how will it change the current common law of Defamation. / Text in Afrikaans / Law / LL.M.

Text in Afrikaans / Constitutional, International & Indigenous Law / LLM

Afrikaans text. / Public, Constitutional, & International / LLM

Afrikaans text. / Public, Constitutional, and International / LLM