Professor Mohamed Paleker is no stranger to the University of Cape Town or its Faculty of Law. Appointed Dean with effect from 1 February 2026, he is a UCT alumnus, having obtained a BA (1992), LLB (1994), Master’s in Law (1996), and a PhD (2018). A qualified attorney and a permanent member of the Faculty since 2002, Professor Paleker truly embodies the phrase “UCT Law through and through.”

The Faculty of Law is honoured to welcome Professor Paleker to the role of Dean. Over more than two decades, he has taught, researched, and published extensively in the Law of Succession, Civil Procedure, Civil Justice Reform, Comparative Legal History, and related fields. His academic leadership is underpinned by deep expertise in legal pedagogy, research supervision, legal practice, and the South African court system. A recipient of multiple teaching awards, he has also held visiting lectureships at leading international institutions. He was a scholar at the Max Planck Institute in Luxembourg, where he worked on a global comparative law project on Civil Procedure.

Professor Paleker’s contribution extends well beyond the classroom. He is widely recognised for his commitment to engaged scholarship, through his work with the Women’s Legal Centre in Cape Town and South Africa’s Commission for Gender Equality; his service as Assistant Editor of the South African Law Journal; and his extensive training of mediators and court officials, both locally and internationally. He has served on numerous ministerial and judicial task teams, the Rules Board for Courts of Law, and, most recently, as Chairperson of the National Ministerial Task Team for Small Claims Courts.

Throughout his career, Professor Paleker has championed a thoughtful, inclusive, and socially responsive approach to legal education. Guided by the conviction that “law should not only teach rules, but also encourage students to ask who the law serves, who it excludes, and how it can be improved,” his work consistently foregrounds justice and accountability. He is also deeply committed to UCT Libraries and to equitable access to knowledge. He has chaired the Faculty’s Library Committee and remains closely involved in the restoration of the Jagger Library following the devastating fire of April 2021.

Much of Professor Paleker’s scholarship is critically engaged. His research examines the limits of formal equality, the risks of unexamined judicial discretion, and how legal rules can entrench structural inequality. He has also examined tensions between freedom of testation and constitutional values, revealing how entrenched property interests and cognitive biases hinder meaningful reform. Having contributed to the constitutional drafting process in the 1990s and now assuming the deanship in the thirtieth year since the adoption of the South African Constitution, Professor Paleker maintains that legal scholarship must not only interpret the law but also challenge it.

Reflecting on his approach to his work, Professor Paleker says:

I care deeply about my work. I want our work to matter and to leave behind something better than what we found.

The Faculty of Law warmly welcomes Professor Paleker and wishes him every success as he begins his term as Dean.

Professor Paleker's CV is available here.