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Law in Context
The project is also aligned to the broader mandate of
the Centre for Comparative Law in Africa in the sense
that by creating a multi-jurisdictional research team, it
expands the Law Faculty’s research networks. Further,
it seeks to be socially responsive by addressing a
subject that affects the lives and livelihoods of much
of the African working population. In addition, it builds
academic capacity through its involvement of academic
staff and postgraduate students in the collaborating
institutions, namely UCT and the universities of
Botswana, Namibia and Zambia.
Outputs from this research project will include articles
presenting an overview of the research findings and a
book on each jurisdiction studied, which will constitute
Juta’s Library of Mining Law in Africa. This project is
led by Professor Hanri Mostert of the Department of
Private Law with the Chair in Comparative Law in Africa
providing expertise on comparative methodology.
Another projected outcome is the launch of a website
for the uploading of the data from the research project.
It is expected that this project will be followed by
studies of other African regions.
Eritrean Land Law
The aim of the Eritrean land-law project is to enrich the
scarce bibliographic resources on Eritrean law with a
comprehensive analysis of its legal framework on land law.
Previous research done on this subject will be expanded
to create a comprehensive and updated legal material
which will represent the reference in a sector – that of land
– which is extremely important for the Eritrean livelihood.
The project aims to produce a book which will give
comparative insights into land tenure in Eritrea (including
customary), among other systems of land administration.
The book will be published in Italian (Trieste University
Press, 2013), and thereafter translated into English and
published in South Africa under the “Comparative Law in
Africa” book series (Juta Press).
The project is also aligned to the broader mandate of
the CCLA in the sense that it is framed in the Afropolitan
vision of UCT, and it will position the CCLA as a leading
institution in the research on key themes of African law.
Further, it seeks to be socially responsive by addressing a
subject that affects the lives and livelihoods of almost all
Eritrean citizens and giving them full information on the
legal regime applicable to their land.
Future activities
The CCLA is in the process of peer-reviewing papers for
the first edition of its journal, the
Journal of Comparative
Law in Africa
. Furthermore, papers presented at its
workshop on comparative law methodology in Africa
held in October 2012 are being peer-reviewed for
publication as the inaugural volume in the above-
mentioned CCLA book series.
The CCLA has recently secured an endowment to support
its academic visitors programme and has been nominated
to host a fellow under the All Africa House fellowships from
September to December 2013. The CCLA is home to the
emerging African Association of Comparative Law and is
connected to a number of other networks, including the
African Legal Support Facility, the Organisation for the
Harmonisation of Business Law in Africa, the Global Forum
on Law Justice and Development, and the International
Association of Legal Sciences.
In its effort to be one of the main actors of legal
development in Africa and beyond, the CCLA has been
already involved in some relevant activities in this respect:
the Chair has been the facilitator of the last meeting held
by the African Legal Support Facility (emanating from
the African Development Bank) on capacity-building for
lawyers in Africa. He has also been a member of the teams
of experts advising the Egyptian government on the Draft
Mediation Law and the Ghanaian government on the Legal
Aid Bill. He is presently a member of the team of experts
advising the government of Fiji on the Draft Mineral Law.
The CCLA is also currently working on the organisation
of a group involving Somali scholars and jurists resident
in South Africa and lawyers interested in Somali law to
create a working group to advise the Somali government
in the rebuilding of their legal system and to do systematic
research on Somali law.
Professor Salvatore Mancuso