International Association of Constitutional Law

SAIFAC is the physical base for the secretariat of the International Association of Constitutional Law (IACL). The IACL was founded in 1981 to promote comparative constitutional law research. It has members in over 50 countries, and organises a World Congress every four years. The last such congress, in Santiago, Chile, was attended by over 400 delegates. The IACL also organises smaller, biannual roundtable meetings devoted to a single public-law theme or issue of regional interest.
The website for the IACL is http://www.iacl-aidc.org/

 

Centre for Human Rights

The Centre for Human Rights (CHR) at the University of Pretoria has been a close partner of SAIFAC throughout its existence. Professor Christof Heyns, who is one of the Trustees of SAIFAC was, at the time of his appointment, Director of the Centre for Human Rights. He is now Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Pretoria. Since 2005, SAIFAC has worked closely with Stuart Woolman of the CHR on the editing of Constitutional Law of South Africa. Prof. Woolman is a Research Associate at SAIFAC and a regular participant in its seminars.  Mr Norman Taku, the Assistant Director of the CHR, works closely with SAIFAC’s Director on the secretariat of the International Association of Constitutional Law.  Further, two of SAIFAC’s Doctoral Fellows have registered their LLD degrees at the University of Pretoria.  In October 2007, Mr Danie Brand of the University of Pretoria, Prof. Stuart Woolman of the CHR and Prof. Theunis Roux jointly established a new peer-reviewed journal, the Constitutional Court Review, devoted to the analysis of the Constitutional Court’s decisions in the previous year.  With effect from 1 January 2008, Prof. Roux has been appointed Extraordinary Professor at the CHR.
The website for the Centre for Human Rights is http://www.chr.up.ac.za/

 

Wits Law School

SAIFAC’s Director, Prof. Theunis Roux, moved to SAIFAC from the University of the Witwatersrand in November 2004, and retained his connection to the university as Honorary Reader in Law.  From 1 January 2008 Prof. Roux has occupied the position of Honorary Professor in the Wits Law School.  The outgoing Dean of Wits Law School, Prof. Glenda Fick, is the Deputy Chairperson of SAIFAC’s Board of Trustees and one of the signatories on its bank account.  Prof. Vincent Nmehielle of Wits also serves on SAIFAC’s Board.  Two of SAIFAC’s Doctoral Fellows and one of its current Masters students are registered at Wits.  Two SAIFAC staff, Mr Godfrey Musila and Dr David Bilchitz, are part-time lecturers at Wits.
The website for the School of Law at Wits is http://www.law.wits.ac.za/

 

The Constitutional Court of South Africa

SAIFAC is independent of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, but maintains close ties to the Court through its Board membership (which includes two former judges and one sitting judge of the Court), its use of the Court’s Public Reading Room, its Research Sabbatical Programme for Judges and Academics (which is being run in co-operation with the Southern African Judges Commission, chaired by the Chief Justice), and the Director’s participation in meetings of the Constitutional Court’s library acquisitions committee.  Sheryl Luthuli, the Constitutional Court Library’s Head Librarian, graciously responds to all SAIFAC’s requests to train new staff and visitors on the use of the Library’s electronic databases.
The website for the Constitutional Court is www.constitutionalcourt.org.za

Other South African organisations with research interests similar to SAIFAC:

University of Johannesburg, Faculty of Law  here>>>