The School for Advanced Legal Studies is the home of UCT Law's Postgraduate programmes.

For your easy viewing, we have put together a number of short clips - about postgraduate Law studies, about particular programmes and about our course highlights. 

With more than 600 students registered across the Faculty's five different postgraduate qualifications our academics and students work together to bring energy and excellence to UCT Law's postgraduate studies. Our postgraduate qualifications include:

We have included an easy-to-view table with all of our postgrad programme options involving coursework. This will help you to pick the degree type and specialisation that best suits you.

Our PG Diploma is a short, sharp opportunity to improve knowledge in a particular area of law, through coursework only.

Our Masters programmes include the following options - an LLM with coursework only (with research tasks), called the Professional Masters; an LLM or MPhil with coursework and dissertation; an LLM or MPhil through research (dissertation only).

Our PhD offering is by research only. 

PhD and Masters-by-research students don't need to be based at the University for the duration of their degrees. As a registered student, you would have full access to all UCT facilities, including library services and online resources. 

Specialist focus areas

Each of the Faculty's three departments is home to a range of specialist legal interests, outlined below. 

Commercial Law

Banking Law; Company Law; Consumer Credit Law; Corporate Governance; Commercial Regulation; Comparative Law in Africa; Intellectual Property Law; Insolvency Law; International Taxation; International Trade Law; Labour Law; Law and Development in Africa; Tax Law; Contracts and Specific Contracts.

Private Law

African Customary Law; Advanced Contract Law; Civil Procedure; Conflict of Laws; Contract/Consumer Protection; Delict; Family Law (including Women and Children’s Law); Jurisprudence and Legal Theory; Legal Education; Mineral Law and Expropriation Law; Private Law and Human Rights; Property Law (in particular related to Land and Natural/Mineral/Fuel Resources); Rhetoric Studies; and Succession.

Public Law

Administrative Justice; Constitutionalism and the Rule of Law in Africa; Race, Gender, Sexuality and the Law; Criminal Justice; Criminology and Governance of Security; Democratisation; Environmental Law; Evidence; International and Regional Human Rights Law and Practice; Law and Society; Land and Policy; Legal Pluralism and Human Rights; Public International Law; International Criminal Law; Constitutional Law; Public Accountability; Forced Migration (including Refugee law, Statelessness and Internal Displacement); Children’s Rights; and Women’s Rights.

For further information on our PG Dip and Masters level coursework programmes, please contact the Faculty Postgraduate Administrator, Clare Richfield. 

For more information about the Masters degrees by research only, and the PhD degree, please contact the Faculty Postgraduate Manager, Patricia Phillips (+27 21 650 5409).

Postgraduate Programme Convenors details can be found here.