The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) was pleased to welcome UCT Law Faculty graduate Ruth Olaoyenikan as the third annual PCA-UCT Fellow to the Peace Palace this September, as part of the Fellowship programme established through the MoU entered into by UCT and the PCA back in 2021.

The MoU established a one-year Fellowship Programme at the Peace Palace in The Hague, for African nationals graduating from the UCT Law LLM programme, or who have completed the UCT Law LLM course in Commercial Arbitration. The MoU als provides for hearing space in the Faculty's OR Tambo Moot Court, to be made available for potential PCA arbitration and conciliation hearings taking place in Cape Town. The MoU also envisages broader academic and cultural exchanges between the UCT Law Faculty and the PCA.

The 2024-2025 Fellow Ruth Olaoyenikan (a Nigerian national) graduated from UCT Law's LLM programme in Dispute Resolution in 2023 and will serve as Assistant Legal Counsel at the PCA for one year. She succeeds 2023-2024 PCA-UCT Fellow Mary Kamwengo (Zambian), who has now returned to her post in the Zambian judiciary; and 2022-2023 PCA-UCT Fellow Adebowale (“Debo”) Aluko (Nigerian). At the PCA, Ruth joins fellow graduate from the UCT Law Commercial Arbitration course Courtney Kemp (South African), who is the current holder of a PCA-ICCA Fellowship. Previous PCA-ICCA fellows and interns from UCT Law have included: Susan Kimani (Kenyan), Rhona Rwangyezi (Ugandan) and Kathleen Mpofu (Zimbabwean).

The Fellowship Programme falls under the auspices of UCT’s Arbitration and Dispute Resolution Unit, ADRU, launched in 2023 and directed by UCT Adjunct Professor Lise Bosman (based at the Peace Palace in The Hague as Senior Legal Counsel to the Permanent Court of Arbitration and Executive Director of ICCA, who was instrumental in the establishment of the UCT-PCA MoU) and Dr Faadhil Adams, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Commercial Law at UCT and the PCA’s Representative in South Africa (who has just completed his sabbatical year at the PCA).