A century worth celebrating

It is understandable that no great fuss has been made of the hundredth anniversary of the establishment of South Africa as a nation state within its current borders (through the South Africa Act 9 Edw VII, ch 9). The Act of Union, after all, while it represented a triumph for those arguing for the formal reconciliation of ‘Boer and Brit’, marked much more negatively the exclusion of the majority of the new country’s population from any effective say in the institutions of government. Not only were the proponents of federalism, which might have allowed the less conservative leadership in the Cape Colony to retain a degree of autonomy through which to pursue government based on individual worth, soundly defeated, but the elements of non-racial government preserved in the Cape franchise arrangements (and to a lesser extent, those of Natal) were seen as provisions to be protected as a dying species, rather than as bridgeheads for their expansion more widely within the Unio

Without deference, with respect: A response to Justice O'Regan

It is a great privilege and honour for me to be speaking on this occasion,not only as Dean of one of the two law faculties which are sponsors of this event, but also in response to a paper of such lucidity and quality.It has occurred to me that in holding this conference we are not only celebrating the anniversaries of the South African Law Journal, of Juta & Co, Ltd and of the Constitution1 itself. We are also marking a milestone of another event which has special significance for administrative law. This year marks the 175th anniversary of the Charter of Justice of 1828 which effectively established the foundations of the Supreme Court of South Africa and therefore the beginnings of the system of judicial review of administrative action which has for so long formed the bedrock of our administrative law.2 In another quirk of coincidence,I could not help noticing that the official dinner of this conference was held in a hotel which is part of a shopping complex the development of which itself led to one of the great landmarks of administrative law in the courts of this country, in the case of Administrator, Transvaal and The Firs Investments (Pty) Ltd v Johannesburg City Council

The administration of justice

2011 saw a transition from the tenure of former Ngcobo CJ to a new era in which the judiciary will be led by Mogoeng CJ. Both the end of Ngcobo CJ's term, which followed an unsuccessful attempt to extend his term, and the appointment of the new Chief Justice attracted significant public interest and raised critical issues of process and substance relating to judicial appointments

The administration of justice

South Africa lost two Chief Justices in late 2012 and mid-2013. Arthur Chaskalson, who served as President of the Constitutional Court from 1994 to 2001 and Chief Justice from 2001 to 2005, passed away on 1 December 2012. Among many achievements and accolades, he was a member of the defence team in the Rivonia Trial of 1963 and was one of the founders of the Legal Resources Centre in 1979. (G Budlender 'In Memoriam: The late former Chief Justice Arthur Chaskalson' (2013) 26 part 1 April Advocate 8-10). Pius Nkonzo Langa succeeded Athur Chaskalson as Chief Justice in 2005, having served as Deputy Chief Justice from 2001. He retired in October 2009 and passed away on 24 July 2013. Justice Langa was a founding member of the National Association of Democratic Lawyers (NADEL). He was among the first judges appointed to the newly created Constitutional Court and served with great distinction. (Moseneke 'Public power on behalf of the people' (2013) 26 part 3 December Advocate 27-8)

Genetic Evidence Implicates the Immune System and Cholesterol Metabolism in the Aetiology of Alzheimer's Disease

Background 1Late Onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD) is the leading cause of dementia. Recent large genome-wide association studies (GWAS) identified the first strongly supported LOAD susceptibility genes since the discovery of the involvement of APOE in the early 1990s. We have now exploited these GWAS datasets to uncover key LOAD pathophysiological processes. Methodology We applied a recently developed tool for mining GWAS data for biologically meaningful information to a LOAD GWAS dataset. The principal findings were then tested in an independent GWAS dataset. Principal Findings We found a significant overrepresentation of association signals in pathways related to cholesterol metabolism and the immune response in both of the two largest genome-wide association studies for LOAD. Significance Processes related to cholesterol metabolism and the innate immune response have previously been implicated by pathological and epidemiological studies of Alzheimer's disease, but it has been unclear whether those findings reflected primary aetiological events or consequences of the disease process. Our independent evidence from two large studies now demonstrates that these processes are aetiologically relevant, and suggests that they may be suitable targets for novel and existing therapeutic approaches

Correction: genetic evidence implicates the immune system and cholesterol metabolism in the aetiology of Alzheimer's disease.

[This corrects the article on p. e13950 in vol. 5.]. Background: Late Onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD) is the leading cause of dementia. Recent large genome-wide association studies (GWAS) identified the first strongly supported LOAD susceptibility genes since the discovery of the involvement of APOE in the early 1990s. We have now exploited these GWAS datasets to uncover key LOAD pathophysiological processes. Methodology: We applied a recently developed tool for mining GWAS data for biologically meaningful information to a LOAD GWAS dataset. The principal findings were then tested in an independent GWAS dataset. Principal Findings: We found a significant overrepresentation of association signals in pathways related to cholesterol metabolism and the immune response in both of the two largest genome-wide association studies for LOAD. Significance: Processes related to cholesterol metabolism and the innate immune response have previously been implicated by pathological and epidemiological studies of Alzheimer's disease, but it has been unclear whether those findings reflected primary aetiological events or consequences of the disease process. Our independent evidence from two large studies now demonstrates that these processes are aetiologically relevant, and suggests that they may be suitable targets for novel and existing therapeutic approaches

Judicial Capacity in a Transforming Legal System

Given the perennial problem of lack of access to justice; the fact that there was no shortage of superior court judges until 1994; the demands on court process which flow directly from transition to the constitutional democratic system; and the urgent and justified necessity for the demographic transformation of judicial personnel, two challenges to the capacity of the judicial system present themselves in South Africa: Enlarging the number of suitable candidates for judicial appointment to redress the former demographic imbalance; and developing the kind of skills among those appointed as judges to be able to respond with confidence across a wide range of often complex legal issues; and developing a theory of judicial deference which observes the separation of powers and preserves judicial independence. This paper explores these challenges, after setting out the socio-political context, as it impacts directly on their nature and scope, and the prospects of meeting them.Debido al constante problema de la falta de acceso a la justicia, al hecho de que no hubo escasez de jueces de tribunales superiores hasta 1994, las demandas del proceso judicial que surgen directamente de la transici&oacute;n al sistema democr&aacute;tico constitucional, y la necesidad urgente y justificada de la transformaci&oacute;n demogr&aacute;fica del personal judicial, el rendimiento judicial en Sud&aacute;frica se encuentra con dos desaf&iacute;os: Aumentar el n&uacute;mero de candidatos aptos al nombramiento judicial para compensar el anterior desequilibrio demogr&aacute;fico y desarrollar en los jueces nombrados aquellas habilidades que les permitan responder con confianza a asuntos jur&iacute;dicos a menudo complejos; y desarrollar una teor&iacute;a de deferencia judicial que respete la separaci&oacute;n de poderes y preserve la independencia judicial. Este art&iacute;culo explora estos desaf&iacute;os tras explicar el contexto sociopol&iacute;tico, ya que &eacute;ste afecta directamente a su naturaleza y alcance, y las probabilidades de que se superen.DOWNLOAD THIS PAPER FROM SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3039518</p

The New Constitutional and Administrative Law. Vol II: Administative Law (Book review)

Anyone reflecting on the level of activity in constitutional law in South Africa over the past 15 years or so would have been startled to hear a prominent judge comment rather plaintively just three years ago on the dearth of incisive and critical academic writing in the field. Surely the extra-ordinary achievements of the recent past would have been unattainable had there not been a considerable body of scholarship feeding the creative processes, not only on the Bench