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2014 OVERVIEW LLM in Comparative Law in Africa

The take-off of the LLM programme in Comparative Law in Africa increases the Law Faculty postgraduate course offerings. The two core courses for the LLM in Comparative Law in Africa are Comparative Legal Systems and African Law. Electives include Civil Law, Common Law and Chinese Law and Investments in Africa, the last of which was described as the first of its kind in South Africa by many enthusiastic students who registered for it in 2013 and 2014. The CCLA also has a number of doctoral students.

Research

In May 2014, a CCLA research project to map Somaliland customary law, funded by the National Research Foundation (NRF) commenced with a trip led by the Principal Investigator, Professor Salvatore Mancuso, to Somaliland to carry out a technical analysis and determination of the project structure. The CCLA is collaborating on the project with the Faculty of Law at the University of Hargeisa, Somaliland with whom the UCT Faculty of Law has a co-operation agreement. This is the second grant to the CCLA from the NRF. In 2012, a grant made under the NRF Knowledge Fields Development category funded the inaugural Comparative Law in Africa Methodology Workshop which brought together comparative law experts from various institutions in Africa and beyond. The CCLA is also host to the Mineral Law in Africa (MLiA) research project led by Professor Hanri Mostert, focusing on the mapping of the mineral law and policy framework in various African countries, with the objective of producing a book series on mineral law and governance in Africa. This project is aimed at making the knowledge of different African mineral law systems more accessible while engaging critically with issues of governance in the extractive industries and their implications for host communities and countries. Seed funding for the project was provided through a grant from the UCT Programme for the Enhancement of Research Capacity (PERC).

LOOKING BACK AT 2013

LLM CourseThe LLM in Comparative Law in Africa with its complement of four core courses and one new elective launched in 2013. Three courses secured enough registrations to proceed. These were African Law in the first semester, and in the second semester, Civil Law and Chinese Law and Investments in Africa. The first was convened by the Chair in Comparative Law in Africa, Prof Salvatore Mancuso while a visiting researcher from the University of Turin, Dr Luca Siliquini Cinelli taught the second course, and Prof Ignazio Castellucci from the University of Trento taught the third course.

ResearchIn 2013, CCLA Chair Professor Salvatore Mancuso received a B3 rating from the National Research Foundation (NRF). CCLA’s pioneer research project, the PERC- funded comparative project on Mineral Law in Africa commenced with a methodology workshop held on November 22 and 23, 2013. The initial research team comprised academics from the Law Faculties of the Universities of Botswana, Namibia and Zambia. The aim of the mineral law for Africa project is to create a systematic academic commentary on mining and mineral laws in Africa, starting with a selection of Southern African countries which present comparative case studies in relation to South Africa. The research has since grown to include other countries such as Mozambique and Tanzania. Professor Mancuso’s UCT start-up research project on Eritrean land law resulted in the publication of the book, Terra in Africa: Diritto Fondiario Eritreo (Eritrean Land Law) by the University of Trieste Press in 2013. An updated edition to be published in English is planned for a later date.

The CCLA worked with the Somali Council of Research and Development (SOMCORD) to create a working group of Somali scholars and jurists resident in South Africa as well as lawyers interested in Somali law to do research and advise the Somali government in the rebuilding of their legal system.

Capacity BuildingThe CCLA embarked on its professional capacity building collaboration with Law@Work, the Professional Development Programme of the Faculty of Law to host two courses as follows: From 3rd to 7th June

VOLUME 2 ISSUE 1MONTH /YEAR : DECEMBER 2014

Partnership BuildingCCLA’s Africa partnership building has led to the institution of its academic visitors programme with the endowment of the distinguished Olu Akinkugbe Business Law in Africa Fellowship (OABLAF). The Fellowship supports the conduct and publication of research to advance and improve business law and policy frameworks across Africa. The fellowship commenced in October 2014 with two inaugural fellows from the Lagos Business School and Omar Bongo University Gabon, respectively. See more on this in the section on Academic Visitors to the centre. For more information see Olu Akinkugbe Fellowship info document on the CCLA website.

Law and Policy Development in Africa to be applied to research, capacity building and research dissemination events. The Fund supports activities aimed at addressing African issues with interventions generated on the continent in response to changes in the economic, social and political landscape of Africa, including the global investment interest in the continent. For more information see the TYD Fund infosheet on the CCLA website.

Both the Olu Akinkugbe Business Law in Africa Fellowship and the TY Danjuma Fund for Law and Policy Development in Africa were launched at an event held in Lagos on 6th May 2014 hosted by the Vice-Chancellor of UCT, Dr Max Price and attended by distinguished donors Chief Olu Akinkugbe CON and Gen TY Danjuma GCON, among other eminent guests.

GFLJD Appointment

In April 2014, Prof Mancuso was appointed one of two co-ordinators of the thematic working group on Justice and Rule of Law at the Global Forum on Law Justice and Development (GFLJD). Prof Mancuso also represented the CCLA at the Law Justice and Development Week of the GFLJD from October 20-24, 2014. For more on the GFLJD, see www.globalforumljd.org

Academic Visitors

From September to November 2014, Prof Mahmoud Farah, Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Hargeisa, Somaliland, under the UCT scholars-at-risk programme which brings scholars at political risk in African countries or academics at risk through lack of resources and governmental support in Africa.

For eight weeks from the beginning of October to the end of November 2014, two inaugural fellows under the Olu Akinkugbe Business Law in Africa Fellowships were hosted by the CCLA - Professor Olawale Ajai, Professor for Legal, Social and Political Environment of Business and Head of the Department of Strategy at the Lagos Business School and

CENTRE FOR COMPARATIVE LAW IN AFRICAKRAMER LAW SCHOOL, MIDDLE CAMPUS

PRIVATE BAG X3, RONDEBOSCH, 7701 SOUTH AFRICATELEPHONE: (27-21) 650-5268

FAX: (27-21) 650 3671WWW.COMPARATIVELAW@UCT.AC.ZA

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Guest LectureThe CCLA secured the visit of Chief Richard Akinjide, Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) to deliver the first Faculty of Law guest lecture of the year on 25th February 2014, titled “Currency and Power are Synonymous.” At 83 and in his 58th year of legal practice, Chief Akinjide is Nigeria’s oldest practising lawyer and leader of the Bar, a former member of parliament and Minister of Education in the 1960s and Attorney-General and Minister of Justice in the 1980s among many other accomplishments. See CCLA website news section for the speech.

Capacity buildingThe CCLA continued its partnership with Law@Work, the professional development project in the Law Faculty to host the second edition of the workshop on Legal aspects of doing business in West and Central Africa in October 2014.

2014 Publications

L’OHADA au Service de L’Economie et de L’entreprise: Efficacite et Competitivite 1993-2013 (Cape Town: Juta Publishers, 2014).

Salvatore Mancuso, “African Law in Action, Journal of African Law, Vol 58, Issue 01 April 2014 pp 1-21.

Salvatore Mancuso, Le droit de contrats en Afrique. Le regard d’un africaniste, in M. Fontaine and D. Philippe, Contrats internationaux et arbitrage/International Contrats and Arbitration, (2014) Brussels, Larcier, pp. 55-73.

Salvatore Mancuso, La circolazione di modelli giuridici (legali o dottrinali) italiani nell’Africa sub-sahariana (The circulation of Italian legal and scholarly patterns in sub-Saharan Africa) in S. Lanni-P. Sirena (eds.), Il modello giuridico – scientifico e legislativo – italiano fuori dell’Europa. Atti del II Congresso Nazionale della SIRD. Siena, Italy, September 2012 (2014) Naples, ESI, pp. 73-82.

Salvatore Mancuso, “A gap is a gap everywhere? An African Contribution to the Taxonomy of Legal Gaps” 29 Tulane European & Civil Law Forum (2014)pp 1-13

Salvatore Mancuso, Pluralismo giuridico in Somalia. Trascorsi storici e sviluppi recenti, 9 Iura Gentium (2014) pp.140-163.

Salvatore Mancuso, Analyse historique et comparée de la figure de l’entreprenant en droit OHADA, in J. Diffo Tchunkam (ed.), L’OHADA au service de l’économie et de l’entreprise, (2014) Cape Town,

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