Welcome to the Faculty of Law 

UCT's Faculty of Law might be the smallest at UCT, but its footprint is large – whether you’re talking about the impact of its staff and students on society, or the largesse of its alumni, or the diversity of its research. The Faculty strives to make a significant contribution to legal education at both LLB and postgraduate levels, as well as to intellectual discourse, both nationally and internationally.

Our LLB programmes

The Faculty offers the LLB programme in three different ways, depending on preference or stage of study:

  • as a "combined stream" degree, where you would take law courses starting in the 2nd year of your undergraduate Humanities or Commerce degree, and then proceed to a 2-year graduate LLB programme
  • as a stand-alone 3-year graduate LLB degree for those with undergraduate degrees with no law courses
  • as a 4-year undergraduate degree.

To find out more about how each LLB programme is structured, head over to our comprehensive page on applying to study at UCT's Faculty of Law. 

Our postgraduate qualifications

The Faculty offers postgraduate qualifications in five different ways, through its School for Advanced Legal Studies:

  • postgraduate diplomas in seven different specialisations
  • LLM degrees by coursework only
  • LLM or MPhil degrees by coursework and dissertation
  • LLM or MPhil degrees by research only
  • PhD by research

With 18 different Master's-level specialisations, undertaking postgraduate studies at UCT Law is the best way to focus in on skilling up to build your career in law. Head to our School for Advanced Legal Studies for more detail on the different specialisation options and the various postgraduate law qualifications. 

Our Departments in Law

The Faculty is structured into three focused Departments, namely

  • Commercial Law
  • Public Law
  • Private Law

and we are home to 13 research units and two community law clinics.

Did you know? 

  1. The UCT Law Faculty is the oldest law school in South Africa, with our first lecture being given in April 1859.
  2. It is ranked in the top 150 law schools worldwide, and top on the continent.
  3. The Faculty has a range of international agreements that enable students and staff to pursue exchanges and research relationships in countries such as Australia, Canada, Ethiopia, Europe, Kenya, the UK and the USA.
  4. Altum Sonatur (the Law Faculty’s student magazine) has repeatedly won the UCT Student Leadership award for best student media.
  5. The Faculty has students and alumni working across the globe – contributing excellence to the legal profession, the development of Law, and research in the field.
  6. We are home to 13 research units and two law clinics.
  7. The Faculty of Law runs a funding campaign – Excellence in Law – to attract support for student scholarships (amongst other projects). The Faculty’s Endowment Fund supports in the region of R2.5million in undergraduate and postgraduate scholarships each year. These scholarships are in addition to a range of other Faculty scholarships, and to core university initiatives to provide fee support to students.