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Editorial
In this edition of Pulp fictions two law students reflect on the issues taken
up in the first edition of Pulp fictions in 2005. Joel Modiri and Emile Zitzke
(both second years in 2011), after reading the dialogue between Heyns and
Van Marle last year as first year students coming into the faculty of law were
prompted to revisit some of the issues raised. Heyns and Van Marle’s dialogue
was in response to a decision of the Centre for Human Rights not to display
a group of etchings by Diane Victor from her Disasters of Peace series in their
offices and a subsequent decision of the University’s management, taken
after the group of etchings had been moved to the Department of Public Law,
to remove two of the etchings that were found to be most offensive by a
group of complainants including the then principal of the University, Prof
Calie Pistorius. Six years after the removal of these art works Modiri and
Zitzke bring fresh perspectives to the debate. Added to this edition also is a
musing by Prof Christof Heyns.
The original idea with Pulp fictions was to open spaces for discussion,
dialogue and dissent and opportunity for creativity, experimentation and reimaginings.
Over the past 6 years, colleagues from the UP Faculty of Law;
from other faculties in UP; and from other universities have participated, as
have a judge of the Constitutional Court and an attorney. This is the first
edition in which students have entered these spaces. We welcome this
expansion and reiterate previous calls for more participation from the UP
academic community and beyond.
Karin van Marle (Editor) Department of Legal History, Comparative Law and
Jurisprudence, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria
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