I’m currently on a European research trip, stringing together various commitments. After a lovely week in Amsterdam, where I could revisit the incredible NIAS (Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences, where I spent an amazing 5 months on an individual research fellowship last year), this week I’m privileged to be … More Research visit and talk: Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, University of Oslo

I am currently in Accra, Ghana, attending the Fordham University Urban Law Centre’s 9th annual International and Comparative Urban Law conference, co-hosted by the GIMPA Faculty of Law. Today, Angela van der Berg (based at the University of the Western Cape) and I are presenting a joint, forthcoming paper assessing city responses to the Covid-19 … More Conference presentation: Governing urban crisis through adaptive urban law: Lessons from city responses to Covid-19 in the Netherlands and South Africa

The first article written during my recent (beyond amazing) individual research fellowship at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIAS) has appeared (online first and open access!) in the Leiden Journal of International Law. In “The relevance of the African regional human rights system in the urban age” I consider the … More Publication: “The Relevance of the African Regional Human Rights System in the Urban Age”

I was honoured to be the plenary speaker at a seminar on Urban Sustainability, Inclusion and Resilience organised by the EVICT Project at the University of Groningen, on Wednesday 18 January. I presented my work in progress on socio-economic rights as adaptive law, with a focus on South African housing rights jurisprudence. My talk was … More Presentation: Vindicating the right to housing in turbulent times: Resilience, inclusion, sustainability and adaptability in South African housing rights jurisprudence

The German Law Journal has just published this open-access article, which is part of my NRF-funded project on the legal dimensions of corporate involvement in urban governance. This is a theoretical article which argues that “significant strides can be made towards addressing international human rights law’s blind spots when it comes to ensuring corporate accountability … More Publication: “Urbanizing Human Rights Law: Cities, Local Governance and Corporate Power”

I had a really busy week, starting with a research visit to Antwerp where I presented a talk on “Corporations, urban governance and human rights” to the University of Antwerp’s Law and Development Research Group on Tuesday 22 November, followed by a talk entitled “Advancing the right to the city through rights to housing and … More Presentations on urban constitutionalism, the right to the city and urban governance

The book Urban Politics of Human Rights edited by Janne E Nijman, Barbara Oomen, Elif Durmus, Sarah Miellet and Lisa Roodenburg has just been published by Routledge and is available open access here. The book considers how human rights are shaped in particular urban political climates. My chapter, “Resisting Marginalisation in the World Class City: … More Publication – book chapter: Resisting Marginalisation in the World Class City

David Everatt from the Wits School of Governance and I have just co-published this article in the Journal of Southern African Studies. It analyses the decline and near collapse of local government in South Africa through a political and legal lens. My contribution to the article centres on the seeming change in judicial approach to … More Publication: “Outsourcing Governance: Local Government and the Future of Democracy in South Africa” (with David Everatt)

I am privileged to have been selected as one of the cohort of 2022/23 research fellows at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIAS) in Amsterdam, where I am based during my sabbatical from the University of the Witwatersrand from 5 September 2022 until 28 January 2023. During my … More NIAS fellowship: Human rights in the African city

This article, which has just been published (in advance online form) by Cities, considers how, in structuring the interplay between corporations and the local state within contemporary urban governance arrangements, urban law can enhance public values and public accountability. It draws on both urban governance and legal literature and engages examples from cities around the world. You … More Publication: “Corporate Power, Urban Governance and Urban law”