As part of their training, law students are required to bulk out their CVs with short-term vac work at law firms. But finding short-term slots is not easy, as a faculty student focus group in 2011 showed. Law firms, like most enterprises, are looking after the bottom line and their focus tends to be on recruiting top students to fill the limited space available to candidate attorneys. Read more...

Some 35 deans from Africa and China's leading law schools gathered for the inaugural conference on Sino-African legal education, hosted by UCT in March. The conference was initiated by Professor Evance Kalula, former director of internationalisation and outreach in the Faculty of Law, and now director of the International Academic Programmes Office (IAPO). Read more...

On 19 December 2012, some 80 law graduates were privileged to hear two outstanding addresses, by VC Max Price and Fink Haysom, and then some excellent “interventions” from members of graduating classes from 1952 to 2002, over lunch.

Last year the Dean hosted a dinner to celebrate the contribution of seven retiring staff members. As one of the retirees said, "It was indeed a glittering occasion set in a historic venue, with warm tributes, a very touching performance by the choir and great food and wine, all contributing to make it a truly memorable event!"

The Centre for Comparative Law in Africa held its inaugural methodology workshop from 22 to 24 October 2012. Some 40 scholars from various universities in South Africa, Africa, Europe and the United States of America participated in plenary and panel discussions.

The workshop closed with agreement on a Cape Town Resolution.

"It has been another very good year in terms of our academic and research enterprise and I am confident you will find much of interest in the pages that follow" Prof PJ Schwikkard, Dean

The Law Faculty recently hosted an informal breakfast for alumni from 1982.

UCT's moot team came fourth out of 44 teams at the 21st African Human Rights Moot Court Competition in Maputo.

Two UCT law students beat their counterparts from the University of the Western Cape - on their home turf, no less - in the very first Kader Asmal Law Moot. Hemlata Hunma and Stephen Miller argued before a panel including three High Court judges in the final round of the competition, which saw students lock horns over the pre-paid water management system imposed in a fictitious town. Read more...

On 31 July Prof Wouter de Vos presented an inaugural lecture titled "Is a Class Action a 'Classy Act' to Implement outside the Ambit of the Constitution?"

We are pleased to share some photos of the successful event.

The Verdict – all a law student needs to know and more!

”This lounge area is wonderful – not only visually and in terms of student need but also because the university is moving towards converting 'dead' spaces into areas where students can socialize and work together. So in every way this is perfect and we really are grateful to you, Norton Rose.”

Thus spake the dean when she cut the ribbon on the most sought after corner of level 2 in Kramer.

The Claude Leon annual lecture - to be given by the Acting Chief Justice of South Africa, Justice Yacoob (pictured left) - has been postponed.

The lecture was to be given on Thursday, 16 August. The new date will be announced shortly. Read more...

Class action is a headache for authorities. On the one hand, it is often regarded as the last resort for large groups seeking relief for the infringement of their human rights and freedoms. On the other hand, critics see class action as a threat to big business. Read more...

The Faculty of Law is reshaping its gender profile, courtesy of its recent fundraising efforts.Over the past few months the faculty has appointed three women - including two of its graduates - on the back of its Law 150 campaign. Read more...

All are welcome to join the Black Law Students' Forum (BLSF) for their final event of 2012. A panel will discuss the topic: Is there a need for black student representation in the UCT Law Faculty?

Join us on Wednesday, 15 August 2012 for a presentation by Willie Hofmeyr entitled ‘Using Asset Forfeiture to fight Crime and Corruption: An assessment of the state of crime and corruption in South Africa, and of the use of civil litigation (in the form of asset forfeiture), to deal more effectively with this’.

Prof John Gibson sadly passed away over the weekend. He will be sorely missed.

The Reunion season is approaching!

The popular choice for 2012 is a December luncheon instead of a weekend in October. It will be on 19 December.

To read more about this, as well as recent reunion events, click on the link below.

The Dean of Law headed up a three-man road show to schools in the Northern Cape in May to talk about Law as a career option and to create awareness of the Law Endowment Scholarships. They covered 4,000 km and met with twelve schools in seven venues.

The Faculty celebrated the achievement of our 107 new graduates, mostly LLMs and including two PhDs, on June 8th.

Sophie Nakueira, an LLM student who was a driving force behind the Celebrating Africa through Fabric event, shared her thoughts on the intention of the show, which aimed to highlight Africa’s “cultural, racial, tribal diversity in a positive way”.

The Law Faculty held a fun evening of fashion, food and singing as part of the university-wide Africa Day celebrations. The event was called Celebrating Africa Through Fabric and was held on 10 May.

UCT's Law, Race and Gender Unit (LRG) has called for new legislation to replace the controversial Traditional Courts Bill. Introduced by government in 2008, the bill was withdrawn from the National Assembly last year after pressure from opponents. Its imminent reintroduction in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) was announced in mid-December, giving rural people two months to submit their comments by 15 February. Read more...

The work of the Southern Africa Food Lab (SAFL) and the Rural Women's Action Research Project (RWAR) are a good match for UCT's social responsiveness objectives, both in letter and spirit. Their research not only tackled two critical and complex social issues - food insecurity and the effects of customary law and the Traditional Courts Bill on women in rural South Africa, respectively - but also did so with energy and sensitivity, and offered solutions, to boot. Read more...

The UCT law team won the Copenhagen competition in which they were required to negotiate an international treaty on access to food.

October 14th, and Alumni from 1981, 1991 and (for the first time a 10th Reunion!) 2001 start converging on Kramer

The Rural Women's Action Research Project at the Law, Race and Gender Research Unit invites you to a seminar by Sanele Sibanda on 25 November 2011 at 12h30. The title of his presentation will be Not purpose-made! Transformative constitutionalism, post-independence constitutionalism and the struggle to eradicate poverty. All are welcome!

Professor Rochelle le Roux has been appointed to the Board of Directors of the South African Institute for Drugfree Sport.

Even the Constitutional Court doesn't always get race quite right, Professor Pierre de Vos suggested in his inaugural lecture, The Past is Unpredictable: Race, redress and remembrance in the South African Constitution, delivered at UCT on 14 September. Read more...

Read about 3 of our graduates in the Top 200 Young South Africans of Today

High school learners from the Western and Northern Cape provinces tested their legal skills when they took part in the recent Regional Mini-Moot Court Competition, organised by the UCT's Faculty of Law and the University of the Western Cape's Legal Aid Clinic. The Grade 11 and 12 learners argued both as applicants and respondents on Constitutional matters that affect them and the community. Read more...

The Department of Commercial Law in the Faculty of Law has beefed up its staff complement by appointing new lecturers. Read more...

The UK-based UCT Trust's fundraising efforts received a boost when the Wolfson Foundation awarded them £550 000 (about R7 million) towards a suite of 22 study bedrooms in the Obz Square residence, currently under construction in Main Road. This is the ninth grant from the foundation, based in the UK, which has been supporting projects at UCT since 1995. Read more...

A team of five UCT law students has won the 2011 White & Case South Africa Jessup Competition, part of the Philip C Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, held at the University of Johannesburg on 29 January.