Martin van Staden
http://www.martinvanstaden.com
Martin van Staden is the Head of Policy at the Free Market Foundation and former Deputy Head of Policy Research at the Institute of Race Relations (IRR). Martin also serves as the Editor of the IRR’s History Project and its Race Law Project, and is an advisor to the Free Speech Union SA. He is pursuing a doctorate in law at the University of Pretoria. For more information visit www.martinvanstaden.com.
Articles By This Author
Traoré is right about democracy (but nothing else)
Ibrahim Traoré, the dictator of Burkina Faso, recently declared on state television that “people need to forget about the issue of democracy”, adding: “We have to tell the truth: democracy isn’t for us.” He said that “democracy kills” and invoked Libya as a cautionary tale of bloodshed and instability whenever outsiders attempt to impose the system. “Democracy is slavery”, he concluded.
Defending Roman-Dutch law against Ghana’s bizarre UN slavery resolution
The United Nations (UN) General Assembly’s newest resolution condemning the trans-Atlantic slave trade as “the gravest crime against humanity” and demanding reparations is highly presumptuous and opportunistic. It misconstrues the justice of reparations and invents fictional legal history that condemns Europe while sanitising African participation.
The West’s responsibility in Iran
Whatever Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu decide to do next in their rightful war against the Islamic regime, the West has a responsibility to the people of Iran that cannot easily be sidestepped with clever “realist” slogans.
The right to be free is to be presumed, and deviations justified
Saturday, 21 March, is Human Rights Day in South Africa. Marking the anniversary of the Sharpeville massacre, this day is meant to be a celebration of the supposed victory of human rights over authoritarian imposition. Occasions like these are good opportunities to ponder the nature and discourse around rights.
Consumer Rights Day 2026: The state is not your mommy
This coming Sunday, 15 March, is Consumer Rights Day. Most people today view consumer rights almost exclusively through the prism of “accurate information” and “the ability to opt-out
A century for voluntarist self-determination
I had the privilege of speaking at the Future of Nations Conference 2026 hosted by Lex Libertas last week, on a panel about lawfare in the changing world order. I emphasised that individuals and peoples who are concerned about their vital interests cannot continue to uncritically defer to the whims of lawmakers.
What does “transformation” mean in post-Apartheid South Africa?
I have often been asked over these past four years what my Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) thesis is about, and I always have trouble answering
Efficiency-‘capitalism’ is hurting liberalism’s greatest gift to the world
Free market capitalism is a superpower wielded in the hands of those societies that opted-in early and those late to the party. It is unlike
Yes, liberalism does eschew regulation of gambling and other vices
South Africa now finds itself in an economic malaise to which liberalisation is the only viable answer. With tepid if any growth rates, the highest formal unemployment rate in the
A muscular liberal solution to the immigration problem
Classical liberals have stood uneasily aside as the immigration debate in the West proceeds without us. Conservatives want remigration and closed borders, while progressives are eager to embrace ideologies and