Call for Papers: 2026 Public Law Conference on Public Law and the Future of Constitutional Democracy, 1 – 4 July 2026
The UCT Law Faculty will host the 2026 Public Law Conference will be held at the Faculty of Law, University of Cape Town on the theme ‘Public Law and the Future of Constitutional Democracy’.
Scheduled from 1 – 4 July 2026, this conference will take place at a time of fundamental challenges confronting constitutional democracy in many common-law jurisdictions, indeed globally.
The theme is especially apposite to the 30th anniversary of South Africa’s democratic Constitution of 1996, given the nation’s history of government founded on systemic racism, exploitation, and injustice. Concern about the vitality of constitutional democratic values and the rule of law lies at the heart of the Conference call.
As with previous conferences in the Public Law series, the chosen theme seeks to solicit a variety of responses from public lawyers across a range of legal systems in the common-law world.
Prospective speakers are invited to engage with the theme from a range of disciplinary perspectives and using doctrinal, theoretical, empirical, comparative or other suitable approaches. Topics could include, amongst many others, the future of constitutional democracy and the rule of law / the separation of powers; the legislature, electoral systems, democratic participation and the future of constitutional democracy; and executive power (hard or soft), accountability and the future of constitutional democracy.
Prospective speakers are invited to submit an abstract of no more than 500 words addressing any aspect of the conference theme. Abstracts must be submitted via the Oxford Abstracts electronic system, which will close on Friday 14 November 2025.
For more details, refer here
