Shaun Barns wins SALRC 10th anniversary essay competition

October 1st, 2014
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By Nomfundo Manyathi-Jele

Shaun Barns has come up tops in the 2013 Ismail Mahomed Law Reform Essay Competition. This was announced at the awards ceremony held by the South African Law Reform Commission (SALRC) in Centurion on 5 September 2014. The ceremony also commemorated the ten-year existence of the competition.

Speakers at the ceremony included Justice Minister Michael Masutha; Judge of the Supreme Court of Appeal and SALRC chairperson, Mandisa Maya; and South Gauteng High Court Judge and vice chairperson of the SALRC, Jodi Kollapen.

Shaun Barns (24) who studied law at the University of Cape Town told De Rebus that he entered the competition because it is a prestigious one. He said he felt humbled by winning. He noted: ‘I think that it is amazing that something that I wrote was given recognition and that it matched the spirit of the late Chief Justice Mahomed.’

His essay titled ‘Constitutional damages: a call for the development of a framework in South Africa’ explored whether the doctrine of vicarious liability adequately fulfills the positive duties placed on the state by the Constitution. More specifically, whether vicarious liability in delict sufficiently protects the rights of citizens where institutional failures in the South African Police Service have resulted in physical injury to private persons. ‘My intention when writing the paper was to identify some challenges legal reform faces in this complex space where the public and private spheres overlap, and further to provide a viable alternative to vicarious liability centred squarely within constitutional law, namely constitutional damages. Lastly, I used Canadian jurisprudence as a comparator to demonstrate how a framework for constitutional damages has been developed in foreign jurisdictions,’ he said.

After completing his studies, Mr Barns did his articles at a law firm in Cape Town for five months but resigned for personal family reason. ‘To keep myself busy I started two companies. The one helps vendors make furniture out of recycled goods, and the other one is closely related, it formalises informal traders in the city of Cape Town,’ he said.

When asked whether he would consider going into practice, Mr Barns said that he would like to but he is not sure when. He added that he would also like to study further and would like to work on the paper that he submitted for the competition. ‘A lot of my essay was on Canadian jurisprudence. I would like to go to the US as they have a unique take on damages as compared to the rest of the world,’ he said.

Mr Barns would like to do a masters in law focusing on constitutional law and jurisprudence.

The runners up in the 2013 competition were Colette Ashton from the University of Pretoria; David Houze from the University of Witwatersrand; as well as Nathan Sarkas and Steven Stuart-Steer from the University of Cape Town.

According to the SALRC, the competition is named in honour of the late Chief Justice Mahomed and it aims to encourage and incentivise critical legal writing by students, while generating new and innovative ideas for law reform.

The initiative also seeks to encourage legal scholarship and dialogue on the link between law reform, human rights and the rule of law. Essays could be on any topic relating to the modernisation, improvement, development or reform of any aspect, area or branch of South African law.

The winner won a R20 000 voucher. The four runners up each won R10 000 vouchers and their supervising lecturers won R2 500.

A book – published by sponsors, Juta Law – containing all winning essays since inception of the competition in 1999 until 2013 was launched at the awards ceremony and presented to all the competition alumni.

Nomfundo Manyathi-Jele, nomfundo@derebus.org.za

This article was first published in De Rebus in 2014 (Oct) DR 13.

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