Standing on Unsteady Ground: AREVA NP Incorporated in France v Eskom SOC LTD

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17159/1727-3781/2019/v22i0a3285

Keywords:

locus standi, legal standing, public-procurement law, substantive reasoning, transformative adjudication

Abstract

Areva NP Incorporated in France v Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd 2017 6 BCLR 675 (CC) was a dispute over a multi-billion-rand tender. Although the majority of the Constitutional Court recognised the public importance of the case, it adjudicated the dispute entirely on a preliminary point. It found that the applicant did not have legal standing to seek the judicial review of the award of the tender.

This case note has three aims. First, I will argue that the Constitutional Court's majority judgment in Areva was generally unpersuasive. Second, I will attempt to show that Areva exposes an unresolved legal question: when should a court consider the merits of a case made by a litigant with questionable standing? Third, I will propose a method for resolving this question by way of substantive judicial reasoning in any given case.

 

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Author Biography

Henri-Willem van Eetveldt, Stellenbosch University

Attorney of the High Court of South Africa; LLM candidate

References

Bibliography

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Case law

AllPay Consolidated Investment Holdings (Pty) Ltd v Chief Executive Officer, South African Social Security Agency 2014 1 SA 604 (CC)

Areva NP Incorporated in France v Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd 2017 6 BCLR 675 (CC)

Bengwenyama Minerals (Pty) Ltd v Genorah Resources (Pty) Ltd 2011 4 SA 113 (CC)

Chairperson, Standing Tender Committee v JFE Sapela Electronics (Pty) Ltd 2008 2 SA 638 (SCA)

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Secureco (Pty) Ltd v Ethekwini Municipality (KZD) (unreported) case number 1100/2015 of 1 April 2016

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Trencon Construction (Pty) Ltd v Industrial Development Corporation of Southern Africa Ltd 2015 5 SA 245 (CC)

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Legislation

Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Act 200 of 1993

Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996

Promotion of Administrative Justice Act 3 of 2000

Published

23-04-2019

How to Cite

van Eetveldt, H.-W. (2019). Standing on Unsteady Ground: AREVA NP Incorporated in France v Eskom SOC LTD. Potchefstroom Electronic Law Journal, 22, 1–27. https://doi.org/10.17159/1727-3781/2019/v22i0a3285

Issue

Section

Case Notes