Faculty of Law
Prof DG Kleyn, Dean
Telephone number: 012 420 2412
Fax number: 012 362 5184
E-mail address: duard.kleyn@up.ac.za
Message from the Dean
During 2006 the Faculty of Law managed to further enhance its reputation as one of the premier law faculties in the country. Apart from hosting the most comprehensive and to date collection of legislation and law reports of countries in Africa, the faculty also boasts an increase in it number of rated researchers by the National Research Foundation (NRF).
Prof John Dugard – who will join the faculty’s Centre for Human Rights early in 2007 - received an A-rating, while Prof Danny Bradlow – currently based at the Washington School of Law in the United States of America (USA) - received a B-rating. One of the main thrusts of the faculty in the future will be to increase the number of NRF rated staff.
The faculty houses three centers that focus on specific areas of research, namely the Centre for Human Rights, the Centre for Child Law and the Centre for Advanced Corporate and Insolvency Law.
In addition, staff members undertake research in a wide range of other areas of law, including constitutional law, environmental law, mercantile law, international law, gender studies, medical law, sports law, law of education and the law of succession, delict, damages and contract.
The faculty houses two accredited journals (De Jure, edited by Prof Hans Visser, and African Human Rights Law Journal, IBSS accredited, edited by Proff Frans Viljoen and Christof Heyns). Prof Chris Nagel is the editor of the Journal of Contemporary Roman Dutch Law (IBSS accredited and published on behalf of the Society Hugo de Groot). The faculty also publishes the African Human Rights Reports.
Accredited research outputs in journals amounted to 78. There is an increasing focus on publications in international and in particular ISI and IBSS accredited journals, and in respect of research of universal significance also on the translation of such research into other languages to reach a broader audience.
A total of nine books were authored or edited or contained chapters by staff members. Staff members presented papers at 9 international conferences.
One of the events that had an impact on research in the Faculty was the promulgation of the new National Credit Act 24 of 2005 that elicited nationwide response and interest. Three staff members, Prof Melanie Roestoff, Messrs Stefan Renke and Franciscus Haupt were involved in research on the effect of the new legislation on the economy and on banks, sellers, private individuals, etc and delivered papers on the subject. The research of a number of staff members was cited as authority by the South African courts.
A citation system is being developed by the faculty’s Senior Law Librarian, Ms Shirley Schröder, to trace the impact of publications by South African legal academics. The impact of one of the Faculty’s leading publications, Constitutional Law of South Africa, edited by Mr Stu Woolman has already been tracked, and it was found that this comprehensive reference work on the South African Constitution was cited more than double the number of times of its closest competition by local as well as overseas courts and academic writers.
The continental relevance of research by Faculty members is starting to expand. The Law of Africa Collection in the Oliver R Tambo Law Library of the Faculty of Law is now the most comprehensive and up to date collection of legislation and law reports of the 53 countries of Africa.
This provides members of the Faculty of Law with unique access to comparative legal research on more than a quarter of the countries of the world. Faculty members were and are involved in this context in research on the harmonization of the Law of Africa for the Pan African Parliament and others.
Prof CH Heyns
Dean
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