Master of Laws in Legal Pluralism and Family Law  

Are you interested in the future of laws in Africa?

The Centre for Legal Integration in Africa in the Department of Private Law has introduced a Master of Laws in Legal Pluralism and Family Law. The first of its kind in South Africa, it presents the interaction of legal orders in Africa as a cultural struggle with enormous significance for global migration and legal integration. It is presented by renowned experts, with core modules of International Family Law and Legal and Cultural Pluralism, alongside a basket of electives such as Children’s Rights, International Protection of Human Rights Law, and Islamic Law and Jurisprudence.

Programme Overview:

This qualification responds to the problematic relationship between indigenous African laws, religious laws, and human rights. Due to an emergent cultural renaissance spawned by globalisation, previously tolerated situations of racism, patriarchy, discrimination, and inequality are succumbing to new values of equality, human dignity, and wealth distribution. This renaissance demands a new approach to African legal identity. With its legal revisionist pedagogy, this programme challenges orthodox ideas about customary family laws, adapts them to new empirical evidence, and encourages learners to transition from dormant receptors of knowledge to self-aware, curious, and critical individuals. By studying how the interaction of normative orders affects the family, learners will contextualise conflict of laws and chart the future of laws in postcolonial societies.

Limited bursaries are available for exceptional applicants.

For Further details contact

Prof. Anthony Diala

adiala@uwc.ac.za