Participation in European Conference on African Studies, Cologne, Germany (2 June 2023)

The European Conference on African Studies was hosted at Cologne University, Germany from 31 May to 3 June 2023 on the theme 'African Futures'. IMEL was represented by Associate Professor Melanie Murcott, who was invited to speak on 'The value of substantive climate adjudication in South Africa', as part of a panel titled 'Environmental and climate rights in Africa: What happens when courts have a say?'. The panel was co-convened by Professor Veronica Federico, University of Florence, and Professor Tracy-Lynn Field, Wits University, and examined the role of courts in enforcing environmental and climate rights in Africa. The purpose of the panel was to advance knowledge on courts as key actors in the creation of an 'African way' to pursue environmental protection, and on the contribution of African climate litigation to globalizing environment constitutionalism. Melanie's presentation argued that substantive reasoning as a feature of transformative adjudication required by South Africa's post-colonial Constitution could be emerging as an 'African way' to promote environmental protection in cases like Sustaining The Wild Coast NPC and others v Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy and others.