MONTH /YEAR : DECEMBER 2014
VOLUME 2 ISSUE 1
LOOKING BACK AT 2013
LLM Course
The 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.
Research
In 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 Building
The 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 2013, An Introduction to
South African Oil and Gas Law and Policy and from 2nd – 11th October 2013,
Legal aspects of doing business in West and Central Africa.
Consultancies
In 2013, the CCLA Chair served as a member of various teams of experts
advising the Egyptian Government on the draft Mediation Law, the Ghanaian
Government on the Legal Aid Bill and the Government of Fiji on the Draft
Mineral Law respectively.
CCLA continued its practice of actively participating in Africa Month activities
with the presentation to a university audience of its research projects at the
PERC-IAPO exhibition held at the Baxter Theatre on 23 May 2013.
Visitors to the CCLA
A distinguished team of four, led by General TY Danjuma GCON visited UCT
on 10th September 2013. Their itinerary included meetings with the Vicechancellor, Dean of the Faculty of Law, IAPO and CCLA. Other members of
the team were Emeritus Professor Oladipo Akinkugbe, former Vice-Chancellor
of two Nigerian universities, Mr Basil Omiyi former Shell country director for
Nigeria and Dr Osagie Ehanire a trustee of the TY Danjuma Foundation.
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).
Journal of Comparative Law in Africa
In 2014, the CCLA produced the first edition of its Journal of Comparative Law in Africa
(JCLA). The journal published by Juta Press Cape Town, launched in the first quarter of
2014. The journal has as its Editor-in-chief, Professor Salvatore Mancuso, Chair in
Comparative Law in Africa at UCT, supported by an eminent scientific and editorial
board. The inaugural edition features articles on various issues by contributors within and
outside the African continent and aptly has as its debut article a keynote paper on Legal
Education in an Era of Globalisation and the Challenge of Development by Professor
Muna Ndulo professor of Law at Cornell Law School and Director of the Institute for
African Development at Cornell University. For more information see the Journal Poster
document on the CCLA website www.comparativelaw.uct.ac.za.
CCLA Book Series
The CCLA book series has launched its first issue with a publication, in French, of papers
presented at the 20th anniversary event of the Organisation for the Harmonisation of
Business Law in Africa (OHADA) held in Yaounde Cameroun in 2013. It is envisaged
that the proceedings of the CCLA Comparative Law in Africa methodology workshop
held in October 2012 will be published as the second book in the series.
Partnership Building
CCLA’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.
Guest Lecture
The 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 building
The 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.
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 Professor Etienne Nsie, Deputy Dean of Pedagogy at the Faculty of Law and Economics of
the Omar Bongo University, Gabon.
From August to October 2014, Ms Margherita Baldarelli from the IUC Turin, spent two months at the CCLA
conducting research for her doctoral studies.
From February to May 2014, Ms Asina Omari, lecturer at the Faculty of Law Univeristy of Dar-es-Salaam was a
visiting fellow at the CCLA under the All Africa House Fellowship. Asina was the first visiting fellow at the
CCLA. However, earlier in October - November 2012, the CCLA two academics from the Faculty of Law of the
St. Petersburg campus of the National Research University “Business High School” Russia visited the CCLA.
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, JUTA, p. 178-187.
Ada Ordor, “Exploring Civil Society Partnerships in Enforcing Decent Work in
South Africa” in Deirdre McCann et al (eds) Creative Labour Regulation:
Indeterminacy and Protection in an Uncertain World (Basingstoke/Geneva:
Palgrave Macmillan/ILO, 2014) Chapter 9.
Ada Ordor, “Associational Life and Women’s Constitutional Rights in Africa” in
Stefanie Rohrs and Dee Smythe (eds) In Search of Equality: Women, Law and
Society in Africa (Cape Town: UCT Press, 2014), Chapter 8.
Ada Okoye Ordor, “The Nonprofit Sector in the Context of Law in Development in
Africa” Journal of African Law Vol 58, Issue 01 April 2014.
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CENTRE FOR COMPARATIVE LAW IN AFRICA
KRAMER LAW SCHOOL, MIDDLE CAMPUS
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