Marius Pieterse

The South African Cities Network has just released its 2021 edition of the quinquennial “State of South African Cities Report”, which “applies a governance lens to diagnose progress made towards achievingproductive, inclusive, sustainable and spatially transformed cities”. I’m happy to have been contracted to write the bulk of the chapter entitled “Governing South African Cities” … More South African Cities Network: State of South African Cities Report 2021

The first published article in my NRF-funded project on legal dimensions of corporate co-government in cities around the world has just appeared in the Potchefstroom Electronic Law Journal. The article focuses on the South African law and cities, and contemplates rights-based accountability of corporations that are directly or indirectly embroiled in the governance of (especially … More Publication: “Corporate Power, Human Rights and Urban Governance in South African Cities”

The International Association of Constitutional Law (IACL) has recently approved the creation of a new research group on the constitutional status of cities. The group will host a session at the forthcoming IACL world congress (to be held in Johannesburg towards the end of this year) and aims ” to create an inclusive forum for … More IACL Research Group: “The Constitutional Status of Cities”

I’m proud to share the syllabus I have just developed for the brand new LLM course in (South African) urban and local government law, to be offered (by me) at the University of the Witwatersrand School of Law from March 2022.

It was an honour to be invited to present an online talk for the EU-funded EVICT project based at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. The project investigates the potential of the right to housing in providing protection against evictions, in various contexts globally. The project, which also hosts the Scientific Network on Eviction … More EVICT Project presentation

I was one of the organisers for this virtual event, hosted jointly by the UN Habitat’s policy, legislation and governance unit, Cities Law and Environmental Sustainability (CLES) at NWU Potchefstroom and the School of Law at Wits University. I also had the privilege of moderating the panel, consisting of Robert Lewis Lettington from UN Habitat, … More Urban Law Day: Virtual panel: Rebuilding a More Just, Climate Resilient and Equitable Urban Future for All: The Role of Law

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