Constitutional courts to meet in SA
19 January 2008
The first World Conference on Constitutional Justice, organised by the Constitutional Court of South Africa and the Venice Commission, takes place in Cape Town from 23 to 24 January.
The conference will bring together, for the first time, courts of constitutional jurisdiction from all over the world, including Commonwealth courts and members of various regional groups of courts of constitutional jurisdiction.
The conference will explore the impact these courts have, both on their own societies and on the development of a global jurisprudence on human rights. At the same time, it will seek to promote co-operation between these courts, and further the development of global human rights principles.
South Africa's Constitutional Court, established in 1995, played a crucial role in the finalisation of the country's first post-apartheid democratic Constitution.
According to the Venice Commission, constitutional justice has become a worldwide phenomenon, with more and more countries having introduced some form of constitutional review, either through specialised constitutional courts or by attributing powers of constitutional review to supreme courts.
The conference will question whether countries are doing this just because it is fashionable to do so, or out of a genuine desire to ensure that their governments and parliaments act in keeping with a constitution and human rights norms.
"Constitutional judges not only influence their own societies but also inspire the development of a global human rights' jurisprudence," says the Commission.
"Of course, each constitution is different and based on each country's history and needs, but the constitutions do concur in the principles of democracy, the protection of human rights and the rule of law."
Legal arguments based on these principles "travel from country to country", the Commission notes.
"More and more, courts cite judgments from other jurisdictions, sometimes as a mere reference, sometimes as persuasive authority - as in the case of the abolition of the death penalty by the Constitutional Court of Hungary and South Africa, which influenced similar decisions in Albania, Lithuania and Ukraine.
"The Constitution of South Africa even expressly mandates courts to consider international and foreign law. The World Conference will look into this mutual inspiration."
Progress towards the development of a global human rights' jurisprudence has also been facilitated by the creation of regional and language-based groups of constitutional courts.
These include the Conference of European Constitutional Courts; the Ibero-American Conference of Constitutional Justice in Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula; the Union of Arab Constitutional Courts and Councils; and the ACCPUF, uniting constitutional courts and councils using the French language.
Since 1998, Chief Justices in southern Africa have met regularly under the auspices of the Southern African Judges Commission. And since 2002, a number of Asian courts have met at the Conferences of Asian Constitutional Court Judges, and intend to create a permanent association.
SAinfo reporter
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