Room 5.40 - Kramer Law Building
 

Lauren Kohn is an Admitted Attorney of the High Court of South Africa and a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Public Law (UCT). Her areas of teaching and research include Administrative Law, Constitutional Law, Environmental Law and Regulatory Law (particularly, Public Procurement Law). Prior to joining academia in 2013, Lauren practiced at Webber Wentzel for several years where she specialised in Public Law. She achieved Distinctions for all of her Side-Bar Exams and the highest overall mark in the Cape of Good Hope (WC, EC, NC) for ‘Court Practice’. When teaching capacity allows, Lauren still consults: she loves marrying her knowledge of legal theory with legal practice. She has advised NGOs on a pro bono basis and has been involved in drafting new framework legislation in a vital government sector. Lauren co-founded www.SALegalAdvice.co.za, an on-line legal services platform aimed at enhancing access to justice. She is one of the Mail & Guardian’s Top 200 Young South Africans of 2018 (Law & Justice) and a Dean’s nominee for the UCT Distinguished Teacher’s Award. Lauren is also a three-time recipient of a UCT Law Faculty Research Prize (1st place: 2020 & 2016; runner-up: 2019). Her innovative work has directly influenced policy / law reform in the fields of constitutional, administrative, procurement and environmental law. In 2019, Lauren was selected as one of 21 ‘Women Leaders’ from across Africa to participate in the WIP Programme (‘Leading in Public Life: Women, Influence, Power Programme’) organised by the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung. She is also the recipient of an inaugural WOZA Award for ‘Best woman: thought leader, innovation & academia in law’, 2019. Since joining the academy, Lauren has presented at numerous local and international conferences, including as Keynote Speaker. Her work has been published prolifically in leading journals and cited by academics and numerous courts, including the Constitutional Court. She is a member of the Editorial Board of Constitutional Court Review and in her role as a passionate educationalist, she has also served as a Board Member of a local school (NPO). Lauren holds a B.Bus.Sci (with Honours, Distinction in Law, various class medals and special awards, UCT); an LLB (Magna Cum Laude, ‘Top Law Student’ 2005; the Moot and various other prizes and class medals, UCT); an LLM (Distinction, top in all courses, UCT, DAAD-NRF and David & Elaine Potter Scholarships) and is registered as an external PhD Candidate (and Fellow) at Leiden Law School in the Netherlands. In her PhD, she is exploring arguments for the formal recognition of an ‘Integrity Branch’ of state in the hope that it may lead to improved governance and thus the better realisation of human rights in South Africa. Lauren is also a 2020 winner of the ‘InspiringFiftySA’ Initiative and has been featured in the first AccelerateHer African EBook: she has been recognised for her passionate and innovative ‘on-line’ contributions in the education- and access-to-legal-services spaces. Lauren is deeply committed to social justice in South Africa, knowledge-transfer, mentorship, and excellence in all that she does. She is a mom to three little girls and a boy.

Publications:

Lauren Kohn ‘The burgeoning constitutional requirement of rationality & the separation of powers: Has rationality review gone too far?’ (2013) 130 South African Law Journal 810.

Lauren Kohn ‘Our curious administrative law love triangle: The complex interplay between the PAJA, the Constitution and the common law’ (2013) 28 SA Public Law 22.

Lauren Kohn ‘The Anomaly that is Section 24G of NEMA: An Impediment to Sustainable Development’ (2012) 19 South African Journal of Environmental Law & Policy 1 (although indexed as a 2012 edition, the journal was delayed & in fact only published in 2014).

Lauren Kohn ‘Escaping the “Shifren shackle” through the application of public policy: An analysis of three recent cases shows Shifren is not so immutable after all’ (2014) 28(1) Speculum Juris 74.

Lauren Kohn & Hugh Corder ‘Judicial regulation of administrative action’ in the South African Monograph on Constitutional Law, Murray & Kirkby (eds) (2014) Suppl. 108 International Encyclopaedia of Laws (IEL), available at http://www.ielaws.com/.

Lauren Kohn ‘The Failure of an arranged marriage: The traditional leadership / democracy amalgamation made worse by the Draft Traditional Affairs Bill’ (2014) 29 SA Public Law 343.

Lauren Kohn ‘The Bashir judgment raises the red flag for the rule of law and the judiciary’ (2016) 133 South African Law Journal 246.

Lauren Kohn ‘The Test for ‘Exceptional Circumstances’ where an Order of Substitution is sought: An Analysis of the Constitutional Court judgment in Trencon against the backdrop of the Separation of Powers’ (2015) 7 Constitutional Court Review 91.

Lauren Kohn ‘Ramuhovhi v President of the Republic of South Africa: A bittersweet victory for women in ‘old’ polygamous customary marriages’ (2017) 33 South African Journal on Human Rights 120.

Lauren Kohn & Raisa Cachalia ‘Restitutionary Measures properly understood & the extension of the Quota Ban – Locating SARIPA in the s 9(2) Van Heerden Framework’ (2017) Acta Juridica 146.

Lauren Kohn ‘Commentary on section 66: National Instructions & Directives’ in chapter 26 of Smythe & Pithey (eds) Sexual Offences Commentary RS02 (updated 2019) Juta.

Lauren Kohn ‘Time to go back to first principles: the constitutionality of the 2017 Procurement Regulations’ in Sope-Elegbe & Quinot (eds) Public Procurement Regulation in Africa: Development in Uncertain Times 2ed (2019) Juta.

Lauren Kohn & Hugh Corder ‘Administrative Justice in South Africa: An overview of our curious hybrid’, chapter 7 in Corder & Mavedzenge Pursuing Good Governance: Administrative Justice in Common Law Africa (2019) Siberink.

Lauren Kohn ‘Time to go back to first principles: A critical analysis of the 2017 Procurement Regulations reveals them to be short of the legality-cum-rationality mark’ (2019) African Public Procurement Law Journal 1.

Lauren Kohn & Raisa Cachalia ‘The quest for “reasonable certainty”: Refining the justice and equity remedial framework in public procurement cases’ (2020) 137 South African Law Journal 559.

Lauren Kohn & Ymre Schuurmans ‘The performance of internally and externally orientated administrative law – the Dutch versus South African Models’ in Volume on ‘Public Law Performance: Substantiating Legitimacy and Effectiveness of Law and Governance in the 21st Century’ (working title of book project with Leiden University) (work-in-progress).

Lauren Kohn Administrative Law in Action (working title: forthcoming book project with LexisNexis).