I was honoured to be invited to write a piece for the 7th edition of Constitutional Court Review and presented my paper at the conference on 4 December 2015. My article is on the recent Constitutional Court judgment of Trencon Construction (Pty) Ltd v Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa Limited [2015] ZACC 22. In particular, I look at the Court’s calibration of the test for exceptional circumstances where an order of substitution is sought and the separation-of-powers implications of this test.