Johannesburg - South Africa is to host constitutional court judges from around the world, including those from Commonwealth courts and members of various regional groups, in Cape Town, later this month.
The World Conference on Constitutional Justice Conference, to be held on 23 and 24 January, will see over 260 senior judges and representatives from constitutional courts, equivalent institutions and their representatives from over 93 countries coming together for the first time.
Briefing reporters about the conference on Monday, Constitutional Court Chief Justice Pius Langa said the event would form a platform for the world's democracies to exchange ideas on constitutional matters and jurisprudence.
Apart from affording the opportunity to discuss issues of mutual interest, Mr Langa said it would also promote cooperation between courts engaged in constitutional review, while also advancing global human rights principles.
"This conference will provide both developed and evolving democracies an opportunity to examine and compare the effectiveness of systems and strategies in different jurisdictions for the achievement of accepted goals."
The conference will be hosted jointly with the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe, an advisory body to the Council of Europe on Constitutional issues.
The theme of the conference will be: "Influential Constitutional Justice-its influence on society and on the development of a global jurisprudence on human rights."
Issues the justices will deliberate on include independence and accountability of the judiciary; interference and the exertion of improper pressure from public representatives; the media and members of the public; the advancement of human rights and the impact of constitutional court judgments on society.
Responding to questions posed by the media, the Chief Justice urged the public to refrain from personal attacks on judges saying they impugn one of the pillars of the country's democracy.
He said while he expected people to scrutinise their judgments, this criticism must not jeopardise or impugn the integrity or and dignity of the judgment.
While it was expected that judgments would be criticised, criticism "should be fair and reasonable and should not impugn the dignity and integrity of judge", he said.
Mr Langa further said he accepted that it was freedom of expression, however, he did not think people should be insulted.
The country's politics has in recent months been increasingly played out in the courts, and in some cases, judges have come under fire for their judgments and the manner in which they handled a complaint to the Judicial Services Commission.
