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Law in Context
Two of the most exciting loci of research in the Faculty of Law at the University of Cape
Town are the Centre for Comparative Law in Africa and the Centre for Criminology.
Each of them demonstrates that law, both substantively and in its application, is heavily
influenced by the context in which it operates – and that the law and its application can
be improved by closely investigating this context from different vantage points.
C
omparative law at its best takes account of the
cultural, sociological and political background of
the systems that are being compared. When done in
this way, comparative law has the power to provide
new solutions to old problems. Too often comparative-
law scholarship neglects these dimensions, and for
too long has our specifically African setting been
ignored in research aimed at the improvement of our
law. The Centre for Comparative Law in Africa, led
by Professor Salvatore Mancuso, states that its aim
is to address “the need to devise contextually sound
law and policy responses to pervasive developmental
challenges facing our continent” and “to develop a
discipline that lends itself to optimal application in the
pluralistic legal frameworks within which life is lived in
Africa”. This ambitious programme has already been
put into action in several important ways as outlined
below. (To learn more about the activities of the Centre
for Comparative Law in Africa, visit its website at http://
www.comparativelaw.uct.ac.za/).
As in all spheres of law, the efficacy of the criminal
justice system is inextricably bound to the conditions,
and attitudes to crime and criminal law, in the society
for which it was created. In the context of the high levels
of crime and violence in our society, the research of the
Centre of Criminology is vital. Led by Professor Clifford
Shearing, holder of the DST/NRF SARChI Chair in Security
and Justice, the centre records that “it has a long history
of engaging contemporary issues within the twin domains
of justice and security” and that “this engagement has
enabled it, since its inception in 1977, to remain Africa-
focused and globally engaged”.
The centre’s research covers a wide range of topics in
policing and in penal systems, as well as in the exciting and
novel area pertaining to the risks associated with lowered
levels of environmental security. Some of this engaged
research, which gives effect to the centre’s slogan, “imagine,
innovate, integrate”, is outlined below (and to learn more
about the work of the centre, visit its website, http://www.
criminology.uct.ac.za/, and its two blogs [one on physical
security and the other on environmental security]).
Highlighting the African focus and social relevance of these
particular two endeavours in the Faculty of Law does not
mean, of course, that the other research in the faculty is of
a different kind. All law inevitably shapes the community
in which it operates and all research in law is therefore, in
one way or another, societally relevant. To give a flavour
of the wide range of the important research in the faculty,
this report profiles four of the faculty’s top researchers and
highlights the doctoral theses and books produced by
members of the staff of the faculty in the course of 2012.
All law inevitably shapes the
community in which it operates
and all research in law is
therefore, in one way or another,
societally relevant