Public Law Conference 2026: Public Law and the Future of Constitutional Democracy

The website and call for papers for the 2026 Public Law Conference, in Cape Town, is now online.

The theme is the future of constitutional democracy and there is a non-exhaustive list of illustrative topics:

• The future of constitutional democracy and the rule of law / the separation of powers
• The legislature, electoral systems, democratic participation and the future of constitutional democracy
• Executive power (hard or soft), accountability and the future of constitutional democracy
• Judicial independence, the judicial role and the future of constitutional democracy
• Administrative justice and the future of constitutional democracy
• Populism, nationalism, fundamentalism and the future of constitutional democracy
• Private disruption of public power in a constitutional democracy
• Identifying and upholding the unwritten norms, values and cultures that sustain constitutional democracy
• The role of integrity institutions and other public-law bodies, including the public service, in supporting constitutional democracy
• Public law as a bulwark against the erosion of individual, indigenous or community rights, including socio-economic rights
• Constitutional democracy for future generations: environmental law, climate change, climate litigation
• The intersection of international law and public law
• Technology and the risks and benefits to constitutional democracy
• Restricting protest, speech or dissent and the impact on democratic participation
• The expansion of punitive state power and the erosion of constitutional democracy: surveillance, incarceration and militarised policing
• The ways in which race, class and spatial inequality shape public law, including the experience of the criminal justice system.

Further details are here and, as always, more will be made available in due course.

This content has been updated on August 19, 2025 at 18:52.