Prof Louis J. Kotzé

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(Research Professor of Law at the Faculty of Law, North-West University, South Africa)

Louis Kotzé is Research Professor of Law at the Faculty of Law, North-West University, South Africa where he teaches International and African Regional Environmental Law in the LLM programme. His research broadly encompasses three interrelated themes that he approaches from a transnational perspective: human rights, socio-ecological justice and environmental constitutionalism; law and the Anthropocene; and Earth system law. He has over 175 publications on these themes. He is assistant editor of the journal Earth System Governance; a member of the South African Academy of Science; co-chair of the Earth System Governance Network’s Scientific Steering Committee; and co-convenor of the Network’s Taskforce on Earth System Law.

In 2016 he obtained a second PhD at Tilburg University, Netherlands. He is the recipient of several research awards including, among others: the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the German Exchange Service, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation; the Austrian Exchange Service, and the South African National Research Foundation. More recently he was awarded a European Commission Horizon 2020 Marie Curie Fellowship to lead a research project during 2018-2019 at the University of Lincoln titled: Global Ecological Custodianship-Innovative International Environmental Law for the Anthropocene.

He served as the Klaus Töpfer Sustainability Fellow at the Potsdam Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies in 2022; and is currently Programme Chair of the project Governing the Planetary Commons: A Focus on the Amazon at The New Institute in Hamburg.

Prof Mitzi Wiese

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Prof Wiese holds an LLB(UP), LLM(Child Law)(UP) and LLD(UNISA) and is an associate professor at the North-West University, Potchefstroom campus. She is an admitted attorney, conveyancer and notary public of the High Court of South Africa (non-practicing). Prof Wiese’s academic career started at UNISA in 2005 when she was appointed a research assistant in the Private Law Department. She was permanently appointed as a senior lecturer in 2007 and later promoted to associate professor. In 2020, Prof Wiese was appointed an associate professor at the NWY Faculty of Law. Prof Wiese is the Research Director of the NWU Faculty of Law Research Unit: Law, Justice and Sustainability. She holds a C2 NRF rating. Prof Wiese teaches property law at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. She supervises LLM and LLD students in the broader field of property law. Prof Wiese’s research interests are property law and real security law.

Prof Brewsters Caiphas Soyapi

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Professor Brewsters Caiphas Soyapi is currently affiliated with the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law through an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship. His present research focus is on environmental pragmatism, where he utilises discourse analysis to examine the intersection of law and environmental politics. This approach seeks insights into the social, economic, and political dynamics contributing to the recurring failure of environmental commitments.

Prof Soyapi has supervised a sizeable number of doctoral and masters students. His academic journey includes being a Canon Collins scholar, participating in Harvard Law School’s Global Scholars Academy, collaborating with the African Judicial Action Group, and serving as a consultant to the United Nations Environment Programme.

He holds a C2 rating from the National Research Foundation, denoting his status as an established researcher with some international recognition. Prof Soyapi is deeply passionate about cinema and unconventional music (epicity), which he incorporates into his teaching and presentations through diverse methods such as discussion prompts, multimedia elements, pop culture references, real-world examples, metaphors and allegories, and data visualization techniques.

Prof Sope Williams

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(Research Professor of Law at the Faculty of Law, North-West University, South Africa)

Sope Williams is a professor of public procurement law and the deputy director of the African Procurement Law Unit at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. She is an expert in anti-corruption law, public procurement law and policy in Africa; procurement in the multilateral development banks; gender-responsive procurement; emergency contracting; sustainable public procurement and blockchain technologies. She has written/edited 5 books: Fighting Corruption in Public Procurement (2012); Public Procurement and Multilateral Development Banks (2017); Public Procurement Regulation for 21st Century Africa (2018) and Public Procurement Regulation in Africa: Development in uncertain times (2020); Routledge Handbook of Public Procurement Corruption (forthcoming, 2024) and authored over 60 peer-reviewed publications. She co-developed and teaches on the LLM and PGDip in Public Procurement Regulation and Policy at Stellenbosch University, the first if its kind in Africa. She is an editor of four international journals and a Vice-Chair of the anti-corruption committee of the International Bar Association. She has been globally recognised for her research and in 2019, she obtained her first NRF rating in the B2 category. In December 2022, she was awarded the prestigious International Anti-Corruption Excellence Award for Academic Research and Education by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the State of Qatar. In 2021 she was designated by the Open Contracting Partnership (USA) as an “anti-corruption champion.” In 2019, she was nominated by the UNODC as an “anti-corruption champion.” She has received Stellenbosch University’s Research Excellence Award twice- in 2014 and 2019. In 2020 she was also appointed as a research fellow by the Public Procurement Research Group in the University of Nottingham, UK. Her research was cited by the South African Constitutional Court in the case of Shaik v The State (2008), in which corruption allegations were levelled against President Jacob Zuma. She is involved in academic and policy oriented research and has drafted some significant policy and research reports, such as: for the International Development Research Centre (Canada)- Public Procurement and Women’s Economic Empowerment (2023); for Global Integrity (USA)- Crises Responses and Corruption in Vulnerable Sectors; for the Open Contracting Partnership (USA)- Equity and Inclusion of Women Owned Businesses in Public Procurement in South Africa (2021); for United Nations Economic Commission for Africa- Guidelines for Open Government in Africa (2017), for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (France)- the peer review on the USA procurement system (2011); and for the European Union and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)- a report on the Nigerian procurement system (2015). She is a regular keynote and conference speaker and has spoken at over 120 international conferences in over 35 countries. As an expert on anti-corruption law and policy, she was asked to develop anti-corruption courses for the UN Virtual School in 2012 and the UNODC in 2019. She served as the only academic member in the World Bank’s Procurement Technical Advisory Group from 2008- 2011, created to advise the World Bank on its procurement policy. She is involved in structured and unstructured mentorship and since 2020, she has served as a mentor on the early career academic development program at SU and since 2022 also serves as a mentor on the Black Academic Mentorship Program at Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT). Informally, she mentors early career academics at the Faculty of Law. She regularly engages with South African and international media and has been published by the World Bank, Brookings Institute (USA), Global Integrity (USA), Open Ownership (USA) and Daily Maverick and Bolander (SA) among others. She has an LLM (with distinction) from the London School of Economics (2000), and a PhD in public procurement and anti-corruption law from the University of Nottingham, UK (2011). Prior to moving to Stellenbosch, she taught at the universities of Stirling and Nottingham, both in the UK, and the University of Lagos in Nigeria.

(Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of the Free State)

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Prof Elizabeth Snyman-Van Deventer is a professor at the Faculty of Law, University of the Free State. She holds the degrees B.Iuris, LL.B, LL.M, LL.M and LL.D (2001). She has been employed as a lecturer at the Department of Mercantile Law since 1991 and is now the HOD of the department. She teaches modules in Law of Business Entities and International Economic Law at both under and post-graduate levels. She has successfully supervised ten doctoral students, 15 full dissertation students, and over 100 mini-dissertation students over her 30-plus-year career. Her research focuses on most aspects of Mercantile Law, but currently, the major focus is the Law of Business Entities (especially aspects of company law and the Law of Partnership) and specific topics within International Economic Law.

She has published 43 accredited journal articles, three articles in non-accredited international law journals, and four in other non-accredited law journals. She is responsible for the updates of Volume 19 Partnership in LAWSA. She has delivered 24 national presentations, 16 international presentations and two keynote addresses. She has served on several editorial boards and often does peer reviews for both national and international journals. She held a Y-rating and later a C rating from the NRF and also accreditation from the American Bar Association.

(Dean: Faculty of Law, University of Fort Hare)

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Prof Mzukisi Njotini holds an LLB (Vista University), LLM (cum laude) in Information Technology Law (UNISA) and LLD (UNISA). He is a seasoned academic and Dean of the Faculty of Law based at the East London Campus of the University of Fort Hare (UFH). Prior to joining the UFH, he worked as the Vice-Dean: Teaching and Learning, and Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Johannesburg (UJ). As Vice-Dean, he devised and introduced teaching and learning frameworks that support education for sustainable development. He also worked as Professor and Director of the School of Law at the University of Limpopo (UL), and Senior Lecturer and Lecturer in the College of Law at the University of South Africa.

As Director, he oversaw, inter alia, the re-accreditation of the LLB programme by the Council on Higher Education (CHE). Prof Njotini developed several courses and programmes, the most notable being the Research Methodology in Law and Criminal Justice (UNISA) and the Short Learning Programme in Law and the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) (UJ). Prof Njotini’s areas of specialisation include Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Law, 4IR and the Law, Cybersecurity and the Law, Legal Philosophy, and Law and Ethics. He has contributed extensively to academic knowledge in his chosen area. Furthermore, he has taught multiple courses, for example, Legal Ethics, Corporate Governance and the Law, Law for Social Work, Law of Delict, Cyber Law, and Law and Industry. Prof Njotini did his post-doctoral research with the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, Faculty of Law, Oxford University in the UK.

(Professor of Law at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban)

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Donrich Thaldar is Full Professor of Law at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban. He has published over 80 articles in local and international academic journals, and is the Principal Investigator of a research project on the legal aspects of the use of data science in health innovation in Africa, funded by the NIH. He also has a private legal practice, and has served as legal counsel in several reported cases. These include cases in the Constitutional Court—South Africa’s apex court. For more information, visit www.datalaw.africa and www.thaldar.com.

Prof Clement Marumoagae

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Prof Clement Marumoagae is a Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand. He is also a practising attorney specializing in pension law and family law. Clement lectures pension law at postgraduate level.

He also lectures insolvency law and procedural law courses at undergraduate level. He is a former councillor of the Legal Practice Council and the inaugural chair of its education committee.

He is currently an academic member of the Judicial Service Commission. Clement is also passionate about the development of candidate legal practitioners and conducts research that is aimed at eradicating artificial barriers meant to restrict entry to the legal profession.

Clement is also a member of the advisory committee of the South African Law Reform Commission, project 144 which is mandated to investigate the possibility of introducing a single marriage statute in South Africa.

Clement has been appointed as a member of the Companies Tribunal from 2023 to 2028.

(Professor of Labour Law & Social Security Law at the University of Limpopo)

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Professor CI Tshoose, is a Professor of Labour Law & Social Security Law at the University of Limpopo. He has lectured at various Universities in South Africa. He is a published scholar. He is the external examiner/moderator for the following institutions; Wits University; University of Johannesburg; University of Venda; and Pearson Institute of Higher Learning. He has also peer reviewed academic papers for the following Academic Journals; SA Mercantile Law Journal’s Public Law Journal; South African Association of Public Administration and Management Journal; Journal of Law, Society and Development; and Potchefstroom Electronic Journal. He is a Member of the South African Society for Labour Law (SASLAW). He has contributed chapters in McGregor M et al Labour Law Rules 3rd edition (Cape Town, Siber Ink, 2017); and also in Tshoose CI and Budeli-Nemakonde M Juta’s pocket companion series on Understanding the Employment Equity Act 2nd edition (South Africa, Juta Law, 2017). Furthermore, he has peer reviewed a Manuscript’s entitled Liber Amicorum - Essays in honour of professor Edwell Kaseke and Dr Mathias Nyenti (African Sun MeDIA, 2019).

Prof Howard Chitimira

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Research Professor at North-West University

Prof. Howard Chitimira is Research Professor in the faculty of law, North-West University. He is also an advocate of the High Court of South Africa. Prof Chitimira graduated with a Bachelor of laws (LLB) degree (cum laude) in 2006 and a Master of Laws (LLM) degree in 2009 from the University of Fort Hare, South Africa. He also obtained a Doctor of laws (LLD) degree in Securities and Financial Markets Law in 2013 from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, South Africa. He is a reviewer and member of the editorial boards for several law journals in South Africa and elsewhere. Prof. Chitimira is an external examiner for LLB, LLM and LLD degrees for several universities in South Africa and other countries. He is a Y2 National Research Foundation (NRF) rated researcher in South Africa. His research interests include Securities and Financial Markets Law, Market Abuse Regulation, Corporate law, Mercantile law, Commercial law, Insolvency law, Competition law, Banking law, Intellectual property law, International Trade law and Human Rights law.