Bio

Qualifications  

• LLB (University of Pretoria) 
• Bachelor of Civil Laws (Oxford)
• MSc in Contemporary Chinese Studies (Oxford)
• PhD in Law (Cambridge) 

Employment :

• Senior Lecturer in Private Law (UCT) 
• Fellow in Criminal Law and Evidence (Edinburgh) 
• Visiting Professor in the Common Law in a Global Context (Ruhr Universitat Bochum) 
• Law clerk in Constitutional Court of South Africa for Justice Johann van der Westhuizen
• Researcher at the South African International and Advanced Constitutional Law Institute (SAIFAC) under Prof David Bilchitz.

Expertise/ Research Interests

Khomotso's areas of interest are jurisprudence, constitutional law, criminal law, delict (defamation and privacy) and civil procedural theory. 

Khomotso completed his PhD thesis titled The Moral and Legal Foundations of Fair Labelling in Criminal Law at Trinity College, Cambridge under the supervision of Prof Antje du Bois-Pedain and Prof Findlay Stark. His examination committee included Prof James Chalmers (Regius Professor, Glasgow) and Dr Jonathan Rodgers (Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge). His research brings together concepts in criminal theory, jurisprudence and moral psychology to argue that criminal offenders are rightly entitled by the rule of law and just practices of blame allocation to have the nature and degree of their wrongdoing correctly represented in the name, categorisation and persistence of a criminal label. Failure to do so by the criminal justice system is not only inappropriate punishment, but a unique moral and legal wrong against the person who is misrepresented.

Khomotso has also applied his research in moral philosophy and legal theory to problems in defamation, privacy, constitutional law and class action certification. His research and expertise has led to appointments at both UK and German universities. 

Khomotso's research aims to show that legal principles in both public and private law are underpinned by deep moral commitments that courts and other legal officials develop and apply from the internal point of view informed by their adherence to the rule of law (from which the very concept of law cannot be separated or divorced despite modern fashions) and communal flourishing (understood as the flourishing of each and of all legal agents in a properly ordered polity). He welcomes students seeking postgraduate supervision on any of these topics. 

Teaching

At UCT, Khomotso teaches Criminal Law, Jurisprudence, Advanced Delict and the Law of Cession. His varied interests are underpinned by common problems across these various subjects, specifically notions of responsibility, blame, contempt and dignity that cut across these fields.

 At Edinburgh he has taught on the LLM in Criminal Justice, specifically General Principles of the Criminal Law, Sex Offending and the Law, and Current Issues in Criminal Justice. 

 At RUB (Germany) he has taught undergraduate courses on Comparative Legal History, Socio Economic Rights and Comparative Constitutional Theory. 

Publications

• K Moshikaro and M Foran ‘The Virtues and Vices of Scholar Activism’ Constitutional Court Review 2023, 17-32.
• K Moshikaro 'The Right to Privacy' in A Hassim, J Brichill and T Ncgukaitobi 'South African Constitutional Law' (Juta 2024).
• K. Moshikaro, 'Unjust Contempt as the ‘Gist’ of Defamation Law' Constitutional Court Review (12) 2022, 59-86.
• K Moshikaro 'Discrimination Law's Virtue', New Digest (2024).
• K Moshikaro ‘Taking Legality Seriously in Punishment’ in L Boonzaier and N Ally Essays in Honour of Edwin Cameron (PULP 2023) (forthcoming).
• K Moshikaro and C Wilkes-Smith, The Dignity and Justice of Common Purpose in Criminal Law, South African Law Journal (under review) 
• K. Moshikaro ‘The Moral and Legal Foundations of Fair-labelling in our Criminal Law’ South African Law Journal 2 (2018) 262 – 284.
• K. Moshikaro ‘Against the Interests of Justice: Ignoring the Role for Distributive Justice when Regulating Court Process’ Constitutional Court Review 7 (2017) 291-320.
• K. Moshikaro, M. Bishop and J. Brickhill Annual Review of Constitutional Law (Juta, 2016).
• K. Moshikaro J. Brickhill and M. Finn Annual Review of Constitutional Law (Juta, 2017).
• K Moshikaro 'Assessing the Performance of the Security Services' in Assessing the Performance of South Africa’s Constitution (IDEA, 2016).
• K. Moshikaro and A. Konstant ‘The Performance of Federalism’ in Assessing the Performance of South Africa’s Constitution (IDEA, 2016).

Conferences & Presented Papers

• K Moshikaro 'Disclosure of Criminal Records and Private Facts' at Right to Privacy in Private Law Conference (UCT and Australian National University) 1-3 May, jointly organized with Dr Jelena Gligorievic (ANU) . 
• K. Moshikaro ‘The Morality of Originalism’, presented at the University of the Western Cape for a Conference on Statutory Interpretation, 2018.
• Panel discussion on African Jurisprudence: opening event of the 'Law and Politics in Three Courts' conference at the Bonavero Institute for Human Rights, University of Oxford (7 November 2019) link at: https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/events/panel-discussion-african-jurisprudence-opening-event-law-and-politics-three-courts-conference.
• K. Moshikaro ‘The Allocation of Risk in Unjustified Enrichment Claims for Theft and Fraud in South African Law’ – 2019 - Conference on Private Law in the Modern Context, University of Cape Town.
• K. Moshikaro ‘A Normative Defence of the Doctrine of Common Purpose and Joint Enterprise’ presented at the ‘Crossing Boundaries? Public Duties and Private Law’ Workshop Leicester Law School, 21 October 2016.
• K. Moshikaro ‘A Possible Defamation Claim for Violations of Fair-Labelling’ presented at ‘Crossing Boundaries? Public Duties and Private Law’ Advanced Winter School for Postgraduate Students and Early-Career Legal Academics and Researchers, 20-21 July 2017.
• K. Moshikaro ‘Ibn-Rushd and the Moral Good of Friendship in Marriage’ presented at ‘International Conference on the Reconstruction of Culture Concept Just Law for Social Welfare’, University of Trisakti, Jakarta, 23 August 2017.