Faculty of Law
Prof Anton Kok, Acting Dean
Telephone number: 012 420 2412
Fax number: 012 362 5184
E-mail address: @up.ac.za
Message by the Dean
The Faculty of Law aims to be an active research
Faculty that contributes to the construction and
sustainability of democratic citizenship and the
legal, political and social transformation of South
African society through high-quality research outputs
and undergraduate and postgraduate study. To
ensure that its research is not merely functional in
nature, confirming in this way the status quo, but
indeed contributes to the broadening of rule of law,
constitutionalism and democracy, both the manner in
which research is done and the aims of that research
should focus on enquiry and questioning.
During the past four years, monthly departmental
research seminars were made compulsory as a way of
making research more central to the daily activities of
the Faculty. This will continue and external academics
(such as extraordinary professors) have increasingly
become involved. There are also other initiatives like
the Prestige Lecture series, the Book Club and the
publication of PULP Fictions to encourage academic
debate and research.
The Research Committee started to play a more
active role since the beginning of 2010 in terms of
communicating important dates to Faculty members,
and representatives on the committee play a more
active role in their departments. The research seminars
in all departments in the month of October 2010
were dedicated to an in-depth reflection on research.
Colleagues were asked to reflect on, among other
things, links between research and the “idea of
the university”, democratic citizenship, substantive
questions about the nature of scholarly research,
and the need for engagement on a conceptual level.
A serious challenge is that only a small number of
publications in the Faculty appear in international
journals and books. As a result, the impact of most of
the publications is limited to a more local readership.
Local online journals might have a wider impact. The
Faculty currently has 16 NRF-rated researchers.
It has been the stated intention of the Faculty
since 2006 to significantly increase its number of
postgraduate students. One of the main developments
in the Faculty has been the introduction of a funded
doctoral programme over the last two years with the
generous financial assistance of the University. In the
course of implementing this programme, it has been
discovered that there is much to be gained from also
targeting part-time students, in particular academics
from other law faculties in South Africa and the rest
of the continent. The funded doctoral programme is
designed to accommodate at least 30 LLD students. All
indications are that this funded programme will enable
the Faculty to significantly improve its supervision of
doctoral students and their throughput rate.
A number of ambitious principles have been set
relating to research in the Faculty. The aim is to confirm
and expand the link between postgraduate study and
research. At least some of the mini-dissertations should
meet the standards of publication. Supervisors, heads
of departments and the postgraduate and research
committees will be required to be more actively
involved in ensuring and following up on publications
by postgraduate candidates. Co-publication with a
supervisor, mentor or other postgraduate candidate
is an option that encourages mentorship. Candidates
on the funded LLD programme are required to
publish three articles during their degree and another
one at completion. The responsibility to monitor the
obligation of postgraduate students to publish rests
on the relevant supervisors. This would be easier if
the various departments and/or supervisors had more
focused areas to take students for postgraduate study.
The Faculty, with its partners in South Africa, on the
continent and abroad, will establish what may – for
lack of a better word for the time being – be called an
“academy”, aimed at advancing postgraduate studies
and research for the law academics of the country and
the continent. The academy will convene for more or
less a month a year, during August. The programme
will include a substantive theoretical programme, as
well as generic and specific research methodologies
and skills.
By linking research, teaching and community, the
Faculty aims to make research a core activity in each
staff member’s life as an academic. This is a long-term
strategy that will hopefully, after some time, result in
quality and sustained research outputs and a broader
culture of research within the Faculty.
Prof Anton Kok
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