Excellence in the Law Faculty

18 Jan 2018
18 Jan 2018

UCT’s Law Faculty is known for our active participation in local and global law conferences and forums – and 2017 was packed with contributions from UCT’s Law academics in a range of important spheres. This engagement is an important indicator of the Faculty’s endeavour to maintain our research output and excellence.

With regard to the Faculty’s research output, audited figures for 2016 reflect that academics produced 151 research outputs, keeping the Faculty at the forefront of knowledge-development in the Law environment.

Further good news at the end of 2017 came from the National Research Foundation. Associate Professor Alistair Price received a coveted P-award. In addition, though, other colleagues received new ratings.  Two UCT Law academics improved their ratings: Prof Anton Fagan from C2 to B3, and Prof Hanri Mostert from B3 to B2, while Prof Danwood Chirwa was newly rated at B3. 

This puts these colleagues in the category of Researchers who enjoy considerable international recognition by their peers for the high quality and impact of their recent research outputs. A number of other colleagues retained their B rating.

The NRF rating process is incredibly rigorous - entailing extensive peer review. Being based in South Africa and working in a discipline like law, it is a real challenge to meet the standard of "considerable international recognition".

It is therefore noteworthy that at the Faculty of Law we have 11 B-rated scholars at present, along with two A-rated scholars in Phillipe Salazar and Clifford Shearing.  We also have six C-rated scholars, attesting to solid reputations as established researchers, and we are home to three early-career colleagues rated as Y.

This record of excellence is testimony to the quality of the scholarship that underpins our outputs. 

Silindile Buthelezi is a great representative of the Faculty’s fantastic talent. A lecturer in the Department of Commercial Law, Ms Buthelezi is a recent recipient of the prestigious Mandela Washington Fellowship, a programme that was created in 2014 by former US president Barack Obama and named after former South African president Nelson Mandela. The highly prestigious and sought-after fellowship is for under 35s from sub-Saharan Africa who have been identified as future leaders within their respective sectors in their home countries. Fellows are placed in various academic institutions across the USA for six weeks of intensive academic and leadership training –  Ms Buthelezi spent her time at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

While Silindile describes her biggest challenge as being a young black woman and emerging academic, working in the male-dominated banking law space, she is clearly not afraid of the challenge. Not settling on her Mandela Washington laurels, Ms Buthelezi was also recognised as one of the 2017 M&G 200 Young South Africans. 

With an LLB and LLM already completed, Silindile has recently graduated with a second LLM, in international banking and finance law from University College London. Silindile was also recently selected from amongst hundreds of applicants, as one of ten academics to present a paper at the 10th Stanford-Penn International Junior Faculty Forum 2017 held at Stanford Law School, California, USA (26-28 October 2017). The title of Silindile’s paper was The Rising Cost of Twin Peaks for South Africa – The Financial Sector Levies Bill and Bank Levies.

For more information on this young law academic, you can access Buthelezi’s M&G recognition here, and a recent UCT News article about Silindile’s achievements here.