Departments

The Law Faculty is organised into three departments: Commercial Law, Public Law and Private Law. Each of these departments is responsible for course offerings and research in particular areas of legal theory, knowledge and practice. In addition, each department is home to one or more specialised academic and research units.

Each department hosts its own website with detailed information on staff, research interests & units, course offerings and more - see the links below.

  • Commercial Law

    The Department of Commercial Law covers a wide range of legal fields. Apart from the core LLB courses Corporation Law and Business Transactions Law, the Department is also responsible for the professional courses in Business Law, Company Law and Labour Law. In this way, the Department not only maintains contacts with other faculties at UCT, but every year teaches law to around 3000 non-law students.

    UCT Law students have a wide range of commercial law courses available to them at both LLB and LLM levels, including courses in corporation law, revenue law, labour law, maritime law, electronic law, international economic law and international trade law.

    A number of postgraduate study programmes are also offered, which enable students to pursue a degree or diploma in a specialised area of law. These include the Marine and Shipping Law programmes (offered with the Department of Public Law), the Labour Law Programme, the Comparative Law in Africa Programme, the Intellectual Property Law Programme and the Tax Law Programme. These courses not only attract postgraduate students from all over Africa and the world, but many practitioners enrol on a part-time basis, which enables the Department to keep close links with the legal practice.

    The research interests of the members of the department are as wide as the selection of courses on offer. Apart from their own research, the members of the Department supervise research conducted by postgraduate students who are undertaking postgraduate study in commercial law, as well as those LLB students in their final year of study, who have undertaken to write their research paper in one of the Research Focus Groups offered by the department.

    Head of Department

    Professor Michelle Louw | m.louw@uct.ac.za  

    Departmental Administration

    Toni Murphy | +27 (0)21 650 5642

  • Public Law

    The Department of Public Law is responsible for undergraduate and postgraduate courses in specialised topics within the broad fields of Constitutional Law, Administrative Law, Human Rights, Environmental Law, International Law and Criminal Justice.

    The Department is truly cosmopolitan in terms of staff and student composition and continues to produce cutting edge research in wide-ranging specialised areas of Public Law as well as conduct seminal inter-disciplinary and applied legal research. Some members of the Department engaged in different ways in South Africa's transition from apartheid, and, as the country's news democracy strengthens, they continue to explore, educate and advise in areas associated with human rights, good governance and criminal justice both domestically and internationally.

    The Department's research is also pioneered through its research units:

    Head of Department

    Associate Professor Cathleen Powell | cathleen.powell@uct.ac.za

    Departmental Administration

    Rene Francke | +27 21 650 3072

  • Private Law

    The research interests of the members of the Private Law Department vary widely and span the entire field of South African private law including, of course, customary law. Areas which are currently the focus of the research programmes of individual members of staff include:

    1. the fundamentals of the law of delict;
    2. land law and land redistribution;
    3. the law of unjustified enrichment;
    4. family law;
    5. the law of contract;
    6. the law of succession;
    7. comparative law and the nature of legal systems;
    8. various facets of legal history generally; and
    9. the jurisprudential and historical context of private law.

    The department is home to a number of focused research initiatives an individual projects which form the core of research in Private Law. Research and related endeavours include:

    Head of Deparment

    Professor Francois du Toit | f.dutoit@uct.ac.za

    Departmental Administration

    Nikki Campbell | +27 (0)21 650 5609

    Sameya Esterhuizen | +27 (0)21 650 3447

Other Units and Facilities in the Faculty

  • UCT Law Clinic

    The UCT Law Clinic – this is the Faculty’s oldest “access to justice” project that provides legal services to those who cannot afford representation, in certain types of legal matters. Based at the University of Cape Town's Law Faculty, the Law Clinic offers on-site and off-site legal advice and support while teaching a Legal Practice Course DOL (4500F/S) and offering opportunities for students to do their compulsory community service.

    A busy, vibrant, registered legal service, the UCT Law Clinic was started by law students in the early 1970s, and was the first university law clinic to be established in South Africa.

    Clinic Director

    Yellavarne Moodley | yellavarne.moodley@uct.ac.za

    Clinic Administration

    Shamemah Abrahams | uctlawclinic@uct.ac.za

  • Law@work

    Law@work is the Faculty’s professional short course unit, which runs an extensive range of short courses for legal and other professionals. Courses are increasingly being offered online, ensuring access to the law community across South Africa and (where applicable) internationally.

    Acting Director

    Donaleen Coue | don.coue@uct.ac.za

    Unit Administration

    Liesel Collins | liesel.collins@uct.ac.za

Resources

The Faculty of Law is housed in the Wilfred and Jules Kramer Law School building on UCT's Middle Campus (see map).