Message from the Dean

The Faculty of Law at the University of Pretoria offers advanced legal training on undergraduate and postgraduate levels and engages in cutting-edge legal research. Its staff participated in drafting the South African Constitution and other legislation and former students and staff serve as judges on the Constitutional Court and other national courts. Alumni are judges and leaders in the organised legal profession.

The Faculty produces the standard reference work on the South African Constitution (cited more often by courts and academics worldwide than any other work) and research by faculty members has been cited numerous times by the courts as authority for legal reform. Staff members of the Centre for Child Law have argued seminal cases dealing with the rights of children in the Constitutional Court.

The Faculty of Law is one of the only law faculties in the world with its own Printing House – Pretoria University Law Press (PULP) – which publishes advanced legal texts from around the world in English, Afrikaans, French, Arabic and Portuguese.

The Faculty houses the Department of Education-accredited legal journal De Jure, the International Biography of Social Sciences accredited African Human Rights Law Journal, as well as its own set of law reports, the African Human Rights Law Reports. Students in the Faculty publish the Pretoria Student Law Review, containing articles authored by them.

The Oliver R Tambo Law Library is one of the best-equipped libraries in the country, and uniquely houses the Law of Africa Collection, the most comprehensive collection of legislation and law reports of African countries under one roof.

The Faculty is housed in the new Law Building, which has won three national and international awards for architecture. Our students have an unparallel success record at national and international Moot Court Competitions, such as the African Human Rights Moot Court Competition and the Commonwealth Moot Court competition. A student of the Faculty has won the trophy as the Best Oralist at the World (Jessup) International Law Competition.

Student life is active and vibrant. The Law House organises a range of activities on cultural, social and sport fronts. The annual Law Faculty Festival was held during September 2011, in which members of the Faculty community participated. The Fifth Faculty Festival provided a platform to celebrate our heritage and space.

It is indeed a privilege to be associated with a Faculty of Law that offers such a wide range of outstanding opportunities to its staff, students and community, in terms of promoting the role that a constitution should play in society.

André Boraine Dean