

This two-day seminar offers an in-depth exploration of South African law, with a particular focus on its constitutional framework and the enduring challenges that shape its legal landscape. South Africa's legal system is a hybrid of common law, Roman-Dutch law, and indigenous customary law, reflecting the country's complex colonial and apartheid history. The seminar examines the transformative role of the 1996 Constitution, particularly in the realm of property rights, and the ongoing tensions between exclusion-based private ownership and an Ubuntu-inspired paradigm of inclusion and social cohesion. Through a critical analysis of historical developments and contemporary legal debates, participants will engage with key issues in land reform, spatial justice, and the broader struggle for legal transformation in post-apartheid South Africa.
Christina Refhilwe Mosalagae holds an LL.M. from Cornell University, USA (2014); an LL.M. in Constitutional and Administrative Law from the University of Pretoria, South Africa (2016); and a Masters in Comparative Law, Economics and Finance with distinction from the International University College of Turin, Italy (2018). In 2023 she obtained her Ph.D. in Law & Institutions from the University of Turin with honors. Her research interests include: Comparative Law, Constitutional Law, Property Law and Global Economic Governance. She is currently the Community Project Leader for the Young Scholars Initiative of the Institute for New Economic Thinking.