Karin Van Marle

Law's time, particularity and slowness

Abstract The article compares law’s time and its effects on how we understand and approach law and legal interpretation, to other concepts of time. It explores two trends: one, asking for a disruption of a chronological and a linear conception of time that could contribute to an acceptance of the notion of multiple truths and fluidity of meanings and the other, supporting the notion of slowness, where difference and particularity can be explored and recognised in contrast to law’s speed, universalisation and generalisation. It contemplates how events and interpretations of art can illustrate a way of disrupting chronological time, and by lingering, of showing greater attentiveness. The article investigates and tentatively suggests other ways of or attitudes to legal reading and interpretation, always keeping the limits and the violence of the law in mind. Artist William Kentridge’s observation that ‘[t]he more general it becomes, the less it works’ stands central to the concern with particularity.

The Spectacle of Post-apartheid Constitutionalism

In this paper, I reflect on constitutionalism, law and politics in the reconstruction of the South African state. I identify two possible approaches to the constitution: monumental and memorial constitutionalism. A monumental approach is connected to Njabulo Ndebele’s critique on spectacle and a memorial approach to his call for a rediscovery of the ordinary. Two artworks, William Kentridge’s Black Box and Judith Mason’s Blue Dress, as well as a novel by Njabulo Ndebele, are employed to comment on post-apartheid law and politics. I aim to problematise approaches to law as monument and spectacle by calling for the memorial, the ordinary and ‘social reconciliation’. However, I conclude — taking the limits of the law (constitutionalism and human rights) into account — that the latter should also be critically considered.

Law and Resistance in the City of Pretoria: Space, History and the Everyday

Abstract In this article the authors focus on a 2012 decision by the South African Constitutional Court concerning the eviction of those who inhabited an apartment building, Schubartpark, in the city of Pretoria. They trace the history of the building back to its original construction and the events that led to the eviction in 2011. The narrative of the building and its inhabitants is situated against the background of the interrelation between history, law, place and time. The authors tentatively draw on Chris Butler’s work on Henri Lefebvre in order to engage with the themes of the resistance of the everyday and the politics of inhabitance within the context of Schubartpark. Central to the discussion is the notion of law’s incapacity to hear, listen and thus respond to the experience, stories and resistance of the everyday.AbstractIn this article the authors focus on a 2012 decision by the South African Constitutional Court concerning the eviction of those who inhabited an apartment building, Schubartpark, in the city of Pretoria. They trace the history of the building back to its original construction and the events that led to the eviction in 2011. The narrative of the building and its inhabitants is situated against the background of the interrelation between history, law, place and time. The authors tentatively draw on Chris Butler’s work on Henri Lefebvre in order to engage with the themes of the resistance of the everyday and the politics of inhabitance within the context of Schubartpark. Central to the discussion is the notion of law’s incapacity to hear, listen and thus respond to the experience, stories and resistance of the everyday.

Modernities and the Making of Worlds

Abstract This article reflects on the complicity between critical literacy, modernity, spatiality and temporality, not only in the creation of a world, but also in living in, inhabiting and cohabiting within a world. Taking the notions of creative adaptation, transculturation and inhabitance as starting points, it reflects on the complicity/relation between critical literacy, alternative modernities and political resistance/dissent in making a world that could be shared with others, one in which we accept cohabitance. Literature and its potential to disclose multiple views of the world and underscore complexity are central to the argument. The article reflects tentatively on how a sense or spirit of place (a complicity maybe) is invoked by the relation between modernities, spatiality and temporality. At a time and place where the epistemic violence of Western modernity and colonialism is at its most pertinent, multiple ways to open possibilities for epistemic justice, and for co-making and cohabiting worlds, should be explored. The complicity of epistemology in many of the injustices of the past should be acknowledged, but then also explored and analyzed. This article is one small attempt in such an exploration.AbstractThis article reflects on the complicity between critical literacy, modernity, spatiality and temporality, not only in the creation of a world, but also in living in, inhabiting and cohabiting within a world. Taking the notions of creative adaptation, transculturation and inhabitance as starting points, it reflects on the complicity/relation between critical literacy, alternative modernities and political resistance/dissent in making a world that could be shared with others, one in which we accept cohabitance. Literature and its potential to disclose multiple views of the world and underscore complexity are central to the argument. The article reflects tentatively on how a sense or spirit of place (a complicity maybe) is invoked by the relation between modernities, spatiality and temporality. At a time and place where the epistemic violence of Western modernity and colonialism is at its most pertinent, multiple ways to open possibilities for epistemic justice, and for co-making and cohabiting world...

Henri Lefebvre. Spatial politics, everyday life and the right to the city

‘due to the belief that he sacrifices himself for the Other’s enjoyment’, the psychopath ‘because he feels a priori justified in his actions’ (p 254). The many facets of evil make the interdisciplinary approach of the collection both logical and worthwhile and each of the contributions is well developed in their own right (though not for the theoretically faint-hearted). However, in a collection entitled ‘Law and Evil’, a stronger jurisprudentialisation of the question of evil throughout the work would have added interest and impact. This is not to diminish the value of the work itself – this is a sophisticated and important collection that goes to the heart of the questions of responsibility, wickedness and legality in our present times and its rigour and breadth is to be praised. I will return to numerous essays in this collection and highly recommend it for anyone interested in the questions of responsibility, evil and law.

Poverty and the ordinary law : introduction

During 2012 a research project on the relationship between law and poverty, titled Poverty and Justice, was launched in the Faculty of Law of the University of Pretoria. The starting point and broad background to the project is the assertion that poverty is an injustice and the implicit flipside of that claim, that justice is the absence of poverty. The basic contention of the project is that any view of poverty as a practical social problem in the first place, rather than a manifestation of injustice, results in an approach to poverty that is focused solely on technical and managerial solutions. This kind of approach to poverty is problematic as it obscures the political dimensions of poverty, that is, the fact that poverty is embedded in and arises from a particular ideology. If one defines poverty as inadequate access to basic living resources such as housing, food, water and health care the political dimensions of poverty are brought to the fore. What determines access to these basic resources is economic and political power. Any response to poverty must therefore engage with and take account of power.