Wits Law School

Wits Law School
Name	Wits Law School
Established	1922
Type	Public
Parent	University of the Witwatersrand
City	Johannesburg
Country	South Africa

Wits Law School

Wits Law School is the law faculty of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, and is a centre for legal education, scholarship, and advocacy. The school offers undergraduate and postgraduate degrees and engages with South African legal reform, human rights litigation, constitutional practice, and comparative law. It maintains links with courts, government commissions, civil society, and international partners across Africa, Europe, and the Commonwealth of Nations.

History

The faculty traces its origins to the early development of legal training in Johannesburg during the aftermath of the Rand Rebellion and the expansion of mining law under the influence of the Chamber of Mines and the South African Native Affairs Commission. Early academics at the school engaged with issues arising from the Natives Land Act, 1913, the Mines and Works Amendment Act, and the legal apparatus of the Union of South Africa. During the apartheid era, staff and students intersected with movements including the African National Congress, the United Democracies Front, and the Congress of South African Students, challenging statutes such as the Population Registration Act, 1950 and the Group Areas Act. In the transition period the school contributed to drafting frameworks for the Interim Constitution of South Africa and the final Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 through academic work alongside commissions like the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Constitutional Committee.

Campus and Facilities

The school is housed within the urban campus of the University of the Witwatersrand, situated near Johannesburg landmarks such as the Witwatersrand, Maboneng Precinct, and the Nelson Mandela Bridge. Facilities include moot courtrooms modelled on the Constitutional Court of South Africa and the High Court of South Africa, Gauteng Division, research libraries with collections ranging from the Law Reports of South Africa to materials on the African Union and the Southern African Development Community. The campus provides access to archives relating to figures like Oliver Tambo, Albert Luthuli, and records on cases from the Appellate Division of South Africa and the Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa.

Academic Programs

Programs span the Bachelor of Laws with links to clinical modules addressing matters before the Constitutional Court of South Africa, the International Criminal Court, and regional bodies such as the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights. Postgraduate offerings include Master of Laws pathways in Human Rights Law, International Law, Commercial Law, and doctoral research engaging with treaties like the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and conventions such as the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights. The curriculum references jurisprudence from courts and tribunals including the International Court of Justice, the European Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and the East African Court of Justice.

Research and Institutes

Research units at the school collaborate with institutes and bodies such as the Southern Africa Litigation Centre, the Society of Advocates, and the South African Law Reform Commission. The school hosts centres focused on Constitutionalism, Labour Law, Mining Law, Environmental Law, and Business Law, and engages with programmes connected to the United Nations human rights mechanisms, the World Bank, and donor organisations including the Open Society Foundations and the Ford Foundation. Scholarly output cites comparative work on instruments like the Berlin Rules on Water Resources and the Basel Convention, and case studies involving corporations such as Anglo American plc, De Beers, and regulatory frameworks like the Competition Act, 1998.

Admissions and Student Body

Admission procedures reflect criteria aligned with the National Senior Certificate and postgraduate requirements that reference qualifications like the Bachelor of Arts and the Master of Laws (LLM). The student body includes undergraduates, postgraduate researchers, international students from Kenya, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Namibia, and visiting scholars from institutions such as Oxford University, Harvard University, University of Cape Town, and the University of Nairobi. Student life intersects with student organisations and unions including the Law Society of South Africa, the South African Students Congress, and advocacy groups such as Black Sash.

Notable Faculty and Alumni

Faculty and alumni have included jurists, politicians, and practitioners who have served in positions across the judiciary, government, and civil society: judges of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, ministers in the South African Cabinet, and commissioners at the Human Rights Commission. Prominent names associated through teaching, research, or alumni networks encompass figures active in cases before the Constitutional Court, proponents of legal reform who engaged with the Mkhonto we Sizwe trials, and attorneys who appeared in international tribunals such as the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

Community Engagement and Pro Bono Clinics

Clinical programmes partner with legal aid organisations including the Legal Resources Centre, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Johannesburg) on legal welfare projects, and NGOs working on land reform cases stemming from the Restitution of Land Rights Act, 1994. Pro bono clinics provide services in areas: housing disputes linked to the Housing Act, 1997, labor disputes invoking the Labour Relations Act, 1995, and environmental litigation concerning sites like the Kruger National Park and issues involving companies such as Sasol.

Category:University of the Witwatersrand Category:Law schools in South Africa