Marius Pieterse

The SARChI chair on Cities, Law and Environmental Sustainability at NWU Potchefstroom, of which I am a fellow, hosts “critical conversations” on urban law topics three times a year. I was the speaker at todays “critical conversation”, presenting some of the ideas from my work on public-law regulation of corporations who play a role in … More CLES “Critical Conversation”: Making Room for Corporate Co-governance of South African cities in the public law relationship”

This article, which straddles my three central areas of expertise (urban law, socio-economic rights and the right to health) has just appeared in the Nordic Journal of Human Rights. It flows from my involvement, as part of a legislative and policy review team for the South African Department of Human Settlements, in the Department’s initial … More Publication: “Balancing Socio-economic Rights: Confronting COVID-19 in South Africa’s Informal Urban Settlements”

It has been a very busy month for me, presentation wise – I was happy to share my current research on corporate co-governance in secondary cities at Fordham Urban Law Center’s 7th International and Comparative Urban Law Conference, which this year was organised virtually together with TU Berlin. The Urban Law Center is a great … More Conference Presentation: Towards rights-based accountability for corporate co-governance in South African cities

It was an honour to participate in this panel, organised and chaired by UN Habitat’s Policy, Legislation and Governance Unit at the 17th conference of the International Society for Urban Health, held virtually from 6-8 July. I shared the panel with pubic health experts and representatives from UN Habitat, United Cities and Local Government (UCLG) … More Virtual panel: Multi-level governance for effective and inclusive public health responses

I’m delighted to be joining the team responsible for the legal/regulatory response/human rights considerations chapter for the second edition of the Covid 19 Country Report jointly steered by the Government Technical Advisory Centre of National Treasury, the Department of Planning , Monitoring and Evaluation and the National Research Foundation of South Africa. The team has … More GTAC/DPME/NRF Covid-19 Country Report

This year’s virtual UN Habitat /University of London Institute for Advanced Legal Studies Urban Law Day reflected on best practice in urban governance during the pandemic. I was honored to be an invited panelist and deliver a somewhat somber paper entitled “Is coping enough? Doing what should have been done in South African cities”, from … More Online Panel: Urban Law Day: Covid-19 and cities a year later: What did cities do right?

Having previously reviewed Maria Mousmouti’s book “Designing Effective Legislation” for the South African Journal on Human Rights, I was invited to participate in a panel discussion on the application of the book’s “effectiveness test” in a variety of legal, regulatory and social contexts. The panel was part of the European Consortium for Political Research Standing … More Online panel: Does Effective Law Matter?

The Environmental Law Association of South Africa (ELA) has been hosting monthly “streaming club” events during the Covid-19 lockdown. These consist of ELA members streaming a topical documentary, followed by a panel discussion on issues raised by the film. Tonight, I had the pleasure of participating in the panel discussing a short film on the … More Online panel: ELA Streaming Club: Reclaim the City, the Adonisi judgment and Spatial Justice

The Oxford Compendium of National Legal Responses to Covid-19 was released on 27 April – as per the Oxford University Press website, the Compendium ” is a global academic collaboration mapping legal responses to Covid-19 in dozens of participating countries and territories. Each entry is structured identically and explores the role of public law, institutional … More Publication: South African country report in Oxford Compendium of National Legal Responses to Covid-19

I presented this online guest lecture today, in a session on land and housing rights for the National University of Colombia and UN Habitat’s Policy, Legislation and Governance Unit’s joint course in “Metropolitan policy and governance, and urban and metropolitan legislation”, which is part of the National University of Colombia’s graduate program in spatial analysis, … More Guest lecture: “The slow convergence of rights to housing and land in South African constitutional law and jurisprudence”