Editorial

 Edition Editor: Prof Anél du Plessis

In this issue we are pleased to publish four papers delivered at a colloquium on Good Governance and Sustainable Development held on 21 August 2009, including the opening address by Justice Thomas von Danwitz of the European Court of Justice, Luxemburg.

In their paper Anél du Plessis and Christa Rautenbach of the North-West University (Potchefstroom) suggested that, due to the divergence in the understanding of the nature of "culture", the roles of "culture" and "cultural governance" should be distinguished in the context of sustainable development, "good cultural governance" being a more precise notion.

At the colloquium Loretta Feris of the University of Cape Town addressed the questions what, in the South African context, the value choices underlying government's decisions are and what role sustainable development plays in informing decisions for good environmental governance.

Nic Olivier, Carin van Zyl and Clara Williams of the University of Pretoria reviewed some of the historical strengths and future prospects concerning rural development in South Africa at the colloquium against the international and regional background which may be expected to influence the South African government's response to the development needs of the people in the country.

Three further contributions on diverse topics appear here:

Tebogo Morajane of the University of Pretoria sets out to determine who is bound by the provisions of the constitutive documents of companies under the South African companies legislation, what the circumstances are which causes one to being bound by those provisions, and the possible effect thereof on various parties.

Nomthandazo Ntlama of the University of South Africa provides an analysis of the potentially problematic features of the South African Civil Union Act of 2006 in the context of equality within the realm of the constitutional protection afforded to everyone in South Africa. The examination of the quality of the legal protection is done with specific reference to same-sex couples.

Finally Jeannie Van Wyk of the University of South Africa reflects critically on a recent judgment of the South African Supreme Court of Appeal in which the concurrent legislative allocation of decisive authority to provincial and municipal authorities regarding planning and development was found to be invalid.

Francois Venter

This issue of PER and the Colloquium on Good Governance and Sustainable Development (held on 21 August 2009) were sponsored by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung.