Welcome to one of the oldest and most distinguished faculties of law in South Africa, as well as the only faculty of law in the judicial capital of South Africa.

The Faculty of Law consists of :

• the Dean’s Office,
• six Departments,
• six Centres and
• six Units.

The Departments are:

• Department of Mercantile Law,
• Department of Private Law,
• Department of Law of Procedure and Evidence,
• Department of Criminal and Medical Law,
• Department of Roman Law, Legal History and Comparative Law, and
• Department of Constitutional Law and Philosophy of Law.

The Centres are:

• Centre for Financial Planning Law,
• Centre for Business Law,
• Centre for Judicial Excellence,
• Old Mutual Trust Centre for Estate Planning Law,
• Centre for Labour Law,  and
• UFS Law Clinic 

The Units are:

• Unit for Children’s Rights,
• Unit for Legal History Research,
• Unit for Medical Law and Bio-Ethics, 
• Unit for Disability Rights in Africa,
• Unit for Health and Human Rights in Africa,  and
• Research Unit on Organised and Economic Crime.

The School for Legal Practice:  Free State is also closely related to the faculty.  The School for Legal Practice:  Free State (an independent juristic person) is responsible for the training of candidate attorneys.

In addition to the more than one thousand students enrolled for legal service courses in almost every other faculty of the University, this Faculty teaches about two thousand five hundred law students, of which approximately one thousand are undergraduate students, one hundred post-graduate students, three hundred E-degree students and about one thousand one hundred students in advanced financial planning law.  The Faculty is served by thirty-two full time and ten part time lecturers, six support staff and twenty research and academic assistants.

The Faculty offers a unique opportunity for both national and international study, and provides a wide choice of undergraduate and post-graduate programmes.  Close association with many overseas universities ensures that degrees are internationally recognised. Cooperation agreements concluded with British, American, Australian, European and South African universities bear witness to the Faculty’s commitment to the maintenance of international standards.

The Faculty offers a scientifically-developed four year LL.B. degree which will provide well-equipped and balanced jurists to the professions. This qualification also allows a student to obtain a Master’s degree in law after only one additional year of study.  In this manner, the Faculty ensures that a student, within a relatively short time-period, is equipped to enter his chosen profession armed with a specialist qualification.  Furthermore, the Faculty is also committed towards ensuring that a student obtains not only a thorough grounding in legal theory, but also a sound practical foundation.  The LL.B provides you with the unique opportunity of being trained by practising jurists, judges and presiding officers of various courts.  It is precisely to this end that the School for Legal Practice: Free State is connected with our Faculty in order to provide students with training in preparation for practice, as well as shortening the requisite candidacy period.

A legal degree opens the door to a wide variety of professions, including the attorney’s profession, the advocacy, the insurance and banking environments, personnel management, the diplomatic service, or becoming a legal advisor, labour consultant, prosecutor or magistrate.  The Faculty strives, by way of excellent tuition, to provide proficient candidates with internationally recognised qualifications to the professions.

One of the unique initiatives of the Faculty is the Centre for Financial Planning Law.  This centre offers a Postgraduate Diploma as well as an Advanced Postgraduate Diploma.  Currently more than 1 000 students are in the process of obtaining these qualifications. These studies are undertaken with the view of eventual membership of the Financial Planning Institute of Southern Africa and in compliance with the statutory requirements for delivering financial advice services.

The following Journals are published by the Faculty:

• The Journal for Juridical Science (JJS)
• Transactions of the Centre for Business Law (Tran CBL)
• The Journal for Estate Planning

The Journal for Juridical Science is an accredited journal and has been published since 1976.   TheTransactions series is dedicated to the publication of top quality refereed articles pertaining to juridical science, as well as papers or contributions that are too long for publication in a legal journal, and that resulted from research at post-graduate level (preferably master’s, doctoral or post-doctoral level). Since 1986, 43 volumes have been published. The Journal for Estate Planning was recently published for the first time.

Kovsilex is the newsletter of the Faculty and is published biannually and distributed to alumni of the Faculty.

The Faculty regards its involvement in community engagement as a matter of honour and high priority.  The Faculty is responsible for running the UFS Law Clinic, one of the biggest of its kind in the country.  A Labour section was started in January 2003 which, in conjunction with the Free State Rural Development Association, deals with the protection and development of farm-labourers.  More or less ten thousand new cases are handled annually.

At the Consumer Court, the Faculty is represented by two lecturers in Private Law.  In addition, the Faculty often provides assessors to the High Court for criminal trials.  In 2002 it was also a privilege to have Prof R-M Jansen, one of our associate professors, appointed as an acting Judge for the High Court.  She was the first serving staff member to be appointed as acting Judge.

Quick reports of judgments from both the Supreme Court of Appeal and the Free State High Court are made available on our website, on the very same day that these judgments are delivered.

As a result of the Faculty’s unique location in the judicial capital of South Africa, we are privileged to have quite a number of Appeal and High Court Judges involved in the Faculty’s activities, either as Honorary or Extraordinary Professors.  Examples are:

• The Honourable Judge of Appeal JJF Hefer (previously President: Supreme Court of Appeal)
• The Honourable Judge DH van Zyl
• The Honourable Judge SPB Hancke
• The Honourable Judge A Kruger
• The Honourable Judge LTC Harms
• The Honourable Judge FDJ Brand
• The Honourable Judge IG Farlam
• The Honourable Judge BJ Van Heerden

On the Faculty Board, Advocate JY Claassen represents the Advocacy, while the Attorneys are represented by Mr W Spangenberg.

Alumni of our Faculty occupy high positions in their various fields across South Africa, while still remaining loyal to their alma mater. The Faculty also boasts its own Kovsie Law Alumni – an association of ex-students who are dedicated to ensuring the continued growth and progress of the Faculty of Law at the University of the Free State.