The Stellenbosch Annual Seminar on Constitutionalism in Africa (SASCA)

The Stellenbosch Annual Seminar on Constitutionalism in Africa (SASCA) is a series of seminars jointly organised by STIAS and the Institute for international and Comparative Law in Africa (ICLA) of the Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria. In 2016, the South African Research Chair (SARChI) on Multilevel Government, Law and Policy at the Dullah Omar Institute, University of the Western Cape, and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) Rule of Law Programme for Sub-Saharan Africa, based in Kenya, joined as organising partners.

The seminars bring together legal practitioners, judges, active constitution builders, legal scholars, research students and researchers from Africa as well as from the USA and Europe. The overriding objective is to contribute ideas that could help in the promotion and deepening of constitutionalism in Africa.

Guest speakers have included David Lewis of Corruption Watch, Chief Justices David Maraga of Kenya and Mogoeng Mogoeng of South Africa, as well as Trevor Manuel, former South African Minister of Finance. For more see this news article and this news article.

One of the most important outputs of the seminars is a series of publications entitled Stellenbosch Handbooks in African Constitutional Law published by Oxford University Press edited by Charles M. Fombad, Professor of Law and head of the African Comparative Constitutional Law Unit of the ICLA at the University of Pretoria and STIAS fellow, and Nico Steytler, South African Research Chair in Multi-level Government, Law and Policy, at the University of the Western Cape.

The first in the series, Separation of Powers in African Constitutionalism was published in 2016. The series has started an intra-African dialogue between the different constitutional traditions that will enable them to share ideas, learn from each other and hopefully develop principles and practices that are more adapted to the African environment and its reality.

For the full collection see: Stellenbosch Handbooks in African Constitutional Law

• Separation of Powers in African Constitutionalism, Charles M. Fombad, ISBN 9780198759799, 2016.
• Constitutional Adjudication in Africa – Charles M Fombad, ISBN 9780198810216, 2017.
• Decentralization and Constitutionalism in Africa – Charles M. Fombad, Nico Steytler, ISBN 9780198846154, 2019.
• Corruption and Constitutionalism in Africa – Charles M. Fombad, Nico Steytler, ISBN 9780198855590, 2020.
• Democracy, Elections, and Constitutionalism in Africa – Charles M. Fombad and Nico Steytler, ISBN 9780192894779, 2021.
•  Constitutionalism and the Economy in Africa – Charles M. Fombad and Nico Steytler, ISBN 9780192886429, 2022
• Constitutional Identity and Constitutionalism in Africa – Charles M. Fombad and Nico Steytler, ISBN 9780198906308

The seminars and contributions aim to provoke fresh, critical, original thinking on how present challenges could be overcome and genuine democracy, constitutionalism, and the rule of law could be made a living reality in Africa.