Call for Papers: 2026 Public Law Conference, Faculty of Law, University of Cape Town, Abstract Submission by 14 November 2025

Public Law Conference
Public Law and the Future of Constitutional Democracy
Cape Town, 1-4 July 2026
Call for Papers

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’. The 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. Papers might
address specific topics relating to the following (non-exhaustive) list of subthemes:

. 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.
. Executive power (hard or soft), accountability and the future of constitutional democracy.
. Judicial independence, the judicial role and the future of constitutional democracy.
. Administrative justice and the future of constitutional democracy.
. Populism, nationalism, fundamentalism and the future of constitutional democracy.
. Private disruption of public power in a constitutional democracy,
. Identifying and upholding the unwritten norms, values and cultures that sustain
constitutional democracy.
. The role of integrity institutions and other public-law bodies, including the publie service,
in supporting constitutional democracy.
. Public law as a bulwark against the erosion of individual, indigenous or community
rights, including socio-economic rights.

. Constitutional democracy for future generations: environmental law, climate change,
climate litigation.
. The intersection of international law and public law.
. Technology and the risks and benefits to constitutional democracy.
. Restricting protest, speech or dissent and the impact on democratic participation.
. The expansion of punitive state power and the erosion of constitutional democracy:
surveillance, incarceration and militarised policing.
. The ways in which race, class and spatial inequality shape public law, including the
experience of the criminal justice system.

Submission of Abstracts
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 open on Monday 1 September 2025 and close on Friday 14 November 2025.
You will be informed by Monday 12 January 2026 whether your abstract has been accepted for
presentation. Please submit your abstracts by following the Oxford Abstracts link here.

Abstracts are invited from those at any career stage. Papers will be accepted on the basis of merit
and fit with the conference theme. Those who have their abstracts accepted will be required to
submit a full written paper by Friday 15 May 2026 for distribution in advance to conference
delegates. Please note that speakers will have to meet their own expenses and pay the conference
fee in the ordinary way.

To submit, click here