In this week’s post, Dr. Patrick Toussaint, argues why Africa needs a Pan-African research agenda that tackles climate reparations and reparations for slavery, colonialism and racial exploitation in tandem. He explains why Africa’s vulnerability to climate change is not accidental but reflects deeper structural conditions shaped by centuries of colonial extraction and unequal development.

In this week’s post, Michelle Barnard examines who should bear responsibility for plastic pollution in South Africa, focusing on producers and consumers within the framework of Sustainable Development Goal 12. She analyses existing legal and policy instruments, including extended producer responsibility and recycling initiatives, and highlights gaps in consumer-focused strategies. In this piece, she argues for a more balanced approach that combines producer obligations with stronger consumer-driven measures to effectively reduce plastic waste.

In this week’s post, Everlyn K. Muendo from Tax Justice Network Africa argues that the UN Tax Convention has the potential to develop more equitable rules about the allocation of taxing rights between the global North and global South and in so doing may enable African countries in particular to raise more tax revenue to resource socio-economic rights and comply with their obligation to devote their maximum resources available towards the realisation of these rights.

In this week’s post, Professor Franaaz Khan explores the potential development of the reasonableness standard in the South African law of delict in order to accomodate the distinctive cognitive abilities of neurotypical individuals arguing that reasonableness does not exist in a vacuum but should be contextual. She argues that the need to develop the common law in line with the spirit purport and objects of the Bill of rights particularly advancing the rights to dignity and equality necessitate such a shift in doctrine.

In this week’s post, African Law Matters sat down with Dr. Ashukem to discuss his recent publication, Handbook on Human Rights to a Healthy Environment: International, Regional, and Comparative Pathways for Policy Intervention in Cameroon. This important new contribution to the growing body of scholarship examines the intersection of human rights and environmental protection in Africa. While focused on Cameroon, it offers insights relevant across Africa.

In this week’s post, Professor Roxan Laubscher analyses the Constitutional Court’s approach to language rights in higher education, focusing on AfriForum v University of the Free State and related cases. The article examines how transformation, equality, and access have shaped judicial interpretation of section 29(2), and questions the impact of this approach on multilingualism, indigenous languages, and inclusive language policy in South Africa.

In this week’s post, Sandra Liebenberg unpacks her recent CCR article, which examines how the interpretation and adjudication of socio-economic rights can advance reparative justice in response to the deep patterns of socio-economic disadvantage and inequality produced by historical injustices such as colonialism and apartheid.

In this week’s post, Elizabeth Graham demonstrates how in light of the prevailing conflict, catastrophic humanitarian crisis and international neglect, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Sudan can play an essential and life-saving role in advancing fundamental economic and social rights such as the right to an adequate standard of living, access to food, medicine and other life-saving services.

In this week’s post, Leo Boonzaier and Nurina Ally provide an update to their 2022 study, which found that the Constitutional Court of South Africa suffered from serious efficiency problems. The full results will soon be published in Volume 15 of the Constitutional Court Review. As their analysis shows, the overall picture remains troubling: the Court has not resolved its efficiency challenges and, in important respects, these have worsened.

In this week’s post, African Law Matters features an interview with Professor David Vital on his book, Trust Courts and Social Rights: A Trust-Based Framework for Social Rights Enforcement. The book proposes a compelling framework for the judicial enforcement of socio-economic rights grounded in the concept of political trust. Given its potential value for the enforcement of socio-economic rights on the African continent and its rich engagement with South Africa’s socio-economic rights jurisprudence, this conversation is particularly timely and valuable.

In this week’s post, Caiphas Brewsters Soyapi argues that in its upcoming advisory opinion on climate change, the African Court of Justice should deploy the African principle of ‘Ubuntu’ to create a distinctly African approach to climate justice rooted in notions of equity and solidarity.

Watch ALM's Ropafadzo Maphosa in conversation with the authors of Behind Prison Walls: Unlocking a Safer South Africa, Judge Edwin Cameron, Rebecca Gore, and Sohela Surajpal. Drawing on their firsthand encounters within the carceral system, the authors reflect on how these experiences informed their motivations for writing the book and the critical insights it offers into incarceration, justice, and the urgent need for prison reform.

In this post, Dr. Omotunde Enigbokan explains the importance of creating a detailed legal commentary on the Kampala Convention to help African states and institutions better understand, interpret, and implement its provisions for protecting and assisting internally displaced persons, as well as improving accountability, monitoring, and practical application across the continent.

in this post, Victor Obinna Chukwuma examines the recent designation of Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” by President Trump, particularly how this label may shape the experiences of Nigerian asylum seekers and refugees. While much of the public debate has centered on diplomatic and political implications, the article shifts the focus to the vulnerable individuals whose safety and legal standing may hinge on how this designation is interpreted and applied across international protection systems.

In this post, Dhumbura uses Ian Hoggins’ sexual offense case as a starting point to argue that, in South Africa, despite strong laws such as the Sexual Offenses Act, failures in the National Register for Sex Offenders continue to leave children vulnerable, exposing serious institutional weaknesses that demand urgent reform.