Overview
Our teams
Journal editors
Faculty members
Our partners
Overview
Steeped in a culture of human rights and constitutionalism, the Faculty has a proud tradition of socially engaged research and publication. This research portal highlights our continued engagement with some of the most critical issues our time -- from climate threats and corruption to far-reaching changes in the employment landscape, the situation of children and families in Africa, the way that legal-political systems can be engineered for liberation or enslavement, and more.
The Faculty consists of research niches, centres and institutes, as well as departments; we also publish two peer-reviewed journals, in addition to a range of other works.
Faculty structure
- Children’s Rights and Family Law in the African Context
This niche area builds on ground-breaking shifts that have taken place in law and policy consequent upon the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child 30 years ago.
- Global Environmental Law (GEL)
Global environmental degradation in the Anthropocene is a pressing issue that requires an innovative and radical legal response.
- Labour Law in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (LL4.0)
This niche area focuses on a question presenting fundamental challenges for labour and social security law internationally: the ‘fourth industrial revolution’ (platform work, artificial intelligence, automation, robotification) and its impact.
- Dullah Omar Institute for Constitutional Law, Governance and Human Rights
The Dullah Omar Institute , formerly the Community Law Centre, at the University of the Western Cape, established in 1990, works to realise the democratic values and human rights enshrined in South Africa’s Constitution. It is founded on the belief that our constitutional order must promote good governance, socio-economic development and the protection of the rights of vulnerable and disadvantaged groups. Given the need for regional integration to encourage development in Africa, the Centre also seeks to advance human rights and democracy in this broader context. Based on high quality research, the Centre engages in policy development, advocacy and educational initiatives, focusing on areas critical to the realisation of human rights and democracy in South Africa and Africa in general.
- Social Law Project
A dynamic research and training unit staffed by a core of legal professionals specialising in labour and social security law. It provides training services in labour and social security law with a focus on client-specific training needs, and conducts applied research supportive of the development of employment rights and rights-based culture in the workplace.
- South African-German Centre for Transnational Criminal Justice
Set up in 2008 as one of the five Centres of Excellence in Africa, supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) with funds from the German Foreign Office. The Criminal Justice Division of the Centre is based in the Law Faculty and runs the LLM and PhD programme ‘Transnational Criminal Justice and Crime Prevention - An International and African Perspective’ in conjunction with the Law Faculty of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.
- Criminal Justice and Procedure
The Department of Criminal Justice and Procedure offers a select menu of highly sought-after elective courses in criminal law, child justice, conveyancing, legal process, and comparative criminal justice. The Department also conducts and publishes internationally recognised research in these subject areas.
- Mercantile and Labour Law
The Department of Mercantile and Labour Law introduces students to the world of commercial and business law. The Department’s focus is on developing student and staffs’ critical thinking skills and supplying them with practical, transferable capabilities to positively contribute to the legal profession or corporate field.
- Public Law and Jurisprudence
The Department of Public Law and Jurisprudence prides itself on the extensive variety of courses it offers, both at undergraduate and postgraduate level, as well as its strong record of high quality research. In addition to the courses that are traditionally regarded as falling within public law and jurisprudence the Department presents a diverse menu of elective courses including, among others, Advanced Public Law, Environmental law, Gender Law, Immigration and Refugee Law, and the South African Bill of Rights.
- Private Law
The Department of Private Law continues to offer academic programmes at undergraduate and postgraduate level on a range of topics including Legal Systems, Customary Law, Family Law, Property Law, Intellectual Property Law, Muslim Personal Law and Law of Trusts. Members of the Department also offer high level expertise and research in these specialist subjects.
- Law, Democracy & Development (LDD)
LDD focuses on the way that the law regulates important aspects of the economic process such as trade and industry, labour, the environment, education, training and culture; the protection and extension of rights which drive and mould socio-economic development such as political rights, gender rights, children's rights, labour rights and other rights which enable the individual to participate in civil society; and the influence of international and regional developments in the areas of policy and law on socio-economic development.
- Journal of Anti-Corruption Law (JACL)
Corruption is a major problem in all parts of the world and its calamitous effects are well documented. JACL is a project of the Department of Criminal Justice and Procedure in the Faculty of Law. It is an open-access, peer-reviewed journal which publishes articles, case notes and comments on any issue relevant to corruption in particular and to economic crimes in general, including money-laundering, racketeering and fraud.
Our teams
Research niche: Children's Rights and Family Law in the African Context
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Research niche: Global Environmental Law
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Prof Werner Scholtz | Dr Muhammad Sameer Kasker Researcher | Prof Duncan French Research associate | Prof Alexander Gillespie Research associate |
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Research niche: Labour Law in the Fourth Industrial Revolution
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Prof Paul Benjamin | Prof Debbie Collier Research associate | Prof Darcy du Toit Coordinator | Ratula Beukman Researcher |
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Ernest Booys | Sedica Davids Researcher | Dr Tinashe Kondo Researcher | Fairuz Mullagee Researcher |
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Centres and institutes: Centre for Legal Integration in Africa (CLIA)
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Centres and institutes: African Centre for Transnational Criminal Justice (ACTCJ)
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Assoc Prof John-Mark Iyi | Prof Benyam D Mezmur Director |
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Journal editors
Law, Democracy & Development
The editors of Law, Democracy & Development are:
Radley Henrico (Associate Professor, University of the Western Cape): Editor-in-Chief
Riekie Wandrag (Associate Professor of Law, University of the Western Cape)
Kitty Malherbe (Professor, Faculty of Law, University of the Western Cape)
Ebenezer Durojaye (Coordinator, Socio-Economic Rights Project, Dullah Omar Institute, University of the Western Cape)
Tinashe Kondo (Lecturer, University of the Western Cape)
Robert Nanima (Post-doctoral research, Dullah Omar Institute)
Sarah Fick (Senior lecturer, University of the Western Cape)
Windell Nortje (Senior lecturer, University of the Western Cape)
Yeukai Mupangavanhu (Associate Professor of Law, University of the Western Cape)
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Journal of Anti-Corruption Law
The editors of the Journal of Anti-Corruption Law are:
Prof Lovell Fernandez, Faculty of Law, University of the Western Cape
Prof Raymond Koen, Faculty of Law, University of the Western Cape
Prof Jamil Mujuzi, Faculty of Law, University of the Western Cape
Prof Abraham Hamman, Faculty of Law, University of the Western Cape
Dr Norman Mugarura, Makerere University Business School, Uganda
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Faculty members
Click on the links below to view the profiles of current and former members of faculty.
Our partners
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Arbeidsmarketresearch UvA BV |
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CoLab for e-Inclusion and Social Innovation |
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Fairwork |
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Hugo Sinzheimer Institute for Labour and Social Security Law |
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Institute for Economic Justice |
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International Commission on Legal Pluralism |
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Law and Development research group, University of Antwerp |
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Leiden University |
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Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies |
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Oxford Human Rights Hub |