Staff profile

Anashri joined Durham Law School in 2013. She teaches public international law and international human rights law. Her research focuses on economic and social rights such as the rights to housing, health care and social security. She is particularly interested in the implications of making these rights justiciable by courts - both in terms of the effectiveness of judicial intervention in this area and the democratic legitimacy of such intervention.

Anashri completed her BA and LLB degrees at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa). She then took up a post at the University of Cape Town (South Africa). She went on to study for an LLM in Public Law at University College London (UCL) with funding from the University of Cape Town Trust. After completing her LLM, she worked in the Department of Public Law at the University of Cape Town, where she taught constitutional law, administrative law and international human rights law for several years. In 2006, she was awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship to study for a PhD at UCL. Her thesis examined the role of judges in implementing economic and social rights in South Africa, India and the United Kingdom. After completing her PhD, she taught Constitutional Law at the University of Leeds for two years before coming to Durham.

Anashri has published a number of articles on, amongst other things, principles of judicial restraint; adjudication of economic and social rights; and judicial review for unreasonableness.

She is a member of the Economic and Social Rights Research Network (ESRAN-UKI) and the African Network of Constitutional Lawyers (ANCL).

Research Supervision

Anashri would be very happy to supervise students who are interested in conducting research on economic and social rights, judicial review or international human rights law.

• International Human Rights Law
• Comparative Constitutional Law
• Economic and Social Rights

Chapter in book

• Pillay, A. Transformative constitutionalism in a neoliberal world: revisiting the global significance of the South African experience of economic and social rights adjudication. In R. Houghton, A. O’Donoghue, Y. Brunger, C. Weixia Chen, & D. Ngira (Eds.), Edward Elgar Research Handbook on Global Governance. Edward Elgar Publishing. Manuscript submitted for publication
• Pillay, A. (2017). 17. Government of the Republic of South Africa and Others v Grootboom 2001 (1) SA 46 (CC), 2000 (11) BCLR 1169 (CC) Commentary: Aoife Nolan Judgment: Anashri Pillay. In H. Stalford, K. Hollingsworth, & S. Gilmore (Eds.), Rewriting Children’s Rights Judgments: From Academic Vision to New Practice. Hart Publishing
• Pillay, A., & Wesson, M. (2016). Recession, recovery and service delivery: political and judicial responses to the financial and economic crisis in South Africa. In A. Nolan (Ed.), Economic and social rights after the global financial crisis (335-365). Cambridge University Press
• Pillay, A. (2014). Judicial Activism and the Indian Supreme Court: Lessons for Economic and Social Rights Adjudication. In L. Lazarus, C. McCrudden, & N. Bowles (Eds.), Reasoning rights : comparative judicial engagement (339-356). Hart Publishing. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781849468466.ch-017

Conference Paper

• Pillay, A. (2008, December). Making social and economic rights work: justiciability, reasonableness and proportionality in South African and United Kingdom courts. Presented at World Congress on Constitutional Law, Athens, Greece

Journal Article

• Pillay, A. (in press). Economic and social rights, corruption and Covid-19: the Indian and South African experiences. National Law School of India Review,
• Pillay, A. (online). Economic and social rights adjudication: developing principles of judicial restraint in South Africa and the United Kingdom. Public Law, 606-624
• Pillay, A. (online). Enforcing social and economic guarantees before the courts: the South African and Indian experiences
• Pillay, A. (2019). COURTS AGAINST CORRUPTION & INEQUALITY: THE INDIAN & SOUTH AFRICAN EXPERIENCES
• Pillay, A. (2017). Protecting judicial independence through appointments processes: learning from the Indian and South African experiences. Indian Law Review, 1(3), 283-311. https://doi.org/10.1080/24730580.2018.1443692
• Pillay, A. (2014). Revisiting the Indian Experience of Economic and Social Rights Adjudication: the Need for a Principled Approach to Judicial Activism and Restraint. International and Comparative Law Quarterly, 63(02), 385-408. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0020589314000074
• Pillay, A. (2012). Towards effective social and economic rights adjudication: the role of meaningful engagement. International Journal of Constitutional Law, 10(3), 732-755. https://doi.org/10.1093/icon/mos021
• Pillay, A. (2007). South Africa: access to land and housing. International Journal of Constitutional Law, 5(3), 544-556. https://doi.org/10.1093/icon/mom019
• Pillay, A. (2007). In defence of reasonableness: giving effect to socio-economic rights. ESR review, 8(4), 3-8
• Pillay, A. (2007). Courts, variable standards of review and resource allocation: developing a model for the adjudication of social and economic rights. European Human Rights Law Review, 6, 616-636
• Pillay, A. (2005). Accessing Justice in South Africa. Florida journal of international law, 17,
• Pillay, A. (2005). Reviewing reasonableness: an appropriate standard for evaluating state action and inaction?. The South African law journal, 2, 419-440
• Bennett, T., & Pillay, A. (2003). The Natal and KwaZulu Codes: the case for repeal. South African Journal on Human Rights, 19, 217-238
• Powell, C., & Pillay, A. (2001). Revisiting Pinochet: The Development of Customary International Criminal Law. South African Journal on Human Rights, 17(4), 477-502. https://doi.org/10.1080/02587203.2001.11827636