ISP Project: Faculty of Law and Legal Aid Clinic : Combating Poverty, Homelessness and Socio-Economic Vulnerability under the Constitutional Dispensation
The Law Faculty is pleased to announce the launch of a new research and outreach initiative focused on combating poverty, homelessness, and socio-economic vulnerability under the Constitutional dispensation. As part of its Institutional Strategic Plan (ISP), the University of Stellenbosch has approved a start-up grant of R6 880 000 over three years (2009 - 2011) to help get the project off the ground. The project will bring together the research efforts of several members of the Law Faculty and the community outreach efforts of the Legal Aid Clinic to energise and accelerate the Law Faculty's work in this important area of the law.
The fresh injection of funding will enable members of the Law Faculty to intensify their research on topics impacting upon poverty and inequality. Research initiatives will examine various facets of the question: How can the 1996 Constitution, with its justiciable Bill of Rights be used to roll back historical trends of social and economic marginalisation? The research will extend not only into Constitutional interpretation, but also into implications for law-making and policy-making across a broad spectrum.
The project has a strong training focus. It will enable the Law Faculty to recruit and fund 20 to 30 new full-time postgraduate students to write master's and doctoral these within the broad area of law and poverty. Plans are in place to provide intensive training and advisory suppport to such students, both to assist them in succeeding in their academic programmes and to equip them to become catalysts for social transformation as they enter the work force. Thematic workshops, conferences, and lectures throughout the year will help to integrate individual participants' research efforts into a collaborate whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.
On the practical side, the project will augment the efforts of the Faculty's Legal Aid Clinic as it works to reduce marginalisation by ensuring access to legal services for disadvantaged communities. Through its contributions in cases involving evictions from land and housing, debt relief, family violence and access to resources such as social grants. The Clinic is well-placed to identify and litigate potential test cases relating to constitutional rights, which can in turn help to set rights-enhancing precedents for the benefit of other similarly marginalised communities.
The project is coordinated by Prof AJ van der Walt (South African Research Chair in Property Law) and Prof Sandra Liebenberg (HF Oppenheimer Chair in Human Rights Law). Prof van der Walt's contribution concentrates on Land, homelessness and social vulnerability, while prof Libenberg will focus on socio-economic rights. The rest of the group is made up by prof J Pienaar (Land reform and security of tenure), prof H Botha (Consolidating and deepening democracy), prof LM du Plessis (Legal and constitutional interpretation), prof G Quinot (Administrative justice), prof OC Dupper (Equility, redress and poverty relief) and MS M Hattingh (Legal Aid Clinic). The project is managed by Ms J Maupin, a specialist in international economic law with Juris Doctor and Masters degrees from Yale University.
Although the project only got off the ground in early January, the first group of postgraduate students have been registered and the plans for the first training sessions and workshops are already underway.
Financial Literacy Workshop
The Legal Aid Clinic of SU, in cooperation with the Financial Planning 378 class of the Department of Business Management and volunteer postgraduate students from the Faculty of Law have launched a Financial Literacy Community Interaction Project. Twelve students from the Faculties of Law and Economic and Management Sciences participated in a workshop on financial skills at the Kayamandi High School on 19 February. The workshop served to introduce Grade 12 learners to basic financial planning skills as well as important information regarding the provisions of the National Credit Act 34 of 2005. In addition to participating in the workshops, the students taking part are further exposed to socio-economic and legal issues confronting the broader community.
Visiting professor appointed as judge of the International Criminal Court
Prof Christine van den Wyngaert, a former visiting professor who still maintains a close relationship with the faculty of law, was appointed as a permanent judge of the ICC at a meeting in New York. At present she is a judge of the UN tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague. Prof van den Wyngaert taught criminal law and international criminal law at the University of Antwerp, Belgium. The ICC, with its seat in The Hague, is the first permanent international tribunal with jurisdiction to try individuals accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
Law Faculty - Alumnus awarded an Honorary Doctorate by German University
An alumnus of Stellenbosch University and respected law expert was recently awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Law by the Ernst Mortiz Arndt University of Greifswald in Germany. For more information see : http://www.sun.ac.za/News/NewsItem_Eng.asp?Lang=2&ItemID=15018 .
