Understanding, Protecting, Promoting and Entrenching the Rule of Law – What Individuals, Constitutional Institutions, State Entities and Civil Society must do

Abstract

The UWC Law Faculty in 2019 celebrated its 40 year existence as an independent faculty. The Law Faculty became an independent faculty on 1 January 1979 when the Faculty of Commerce and Law was divided in two: the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences and the Faculty of Law. The Dean’s Distinguished Lecture was initiated in 2015, with the following judges as speakers: Moseneke (2015), Pillay (2016), Cameron (2017), and Ngoepe (2018). Justice Mahomed Navsa, who presented the lecture in 2019, obtained the BA (law) degree from UWC in 1978 and the LLB degree in 1980. In his lecture, Justice Navsa emphasised the importance of consolidating the gains of the struggle against apartheid through the establishment of the rule of law. In an age where the Constitution is under attack from many sides, Justice Navsa emphasised the importance of fulfilling the promises of that Constitution, not only by government and public officials, but by each citizen.