The Faculty was particularly active in the field of research during 2001, which clearly reflects the high premium that is placed on research.

There has been a steady increase in the number of articles published in accredited national and international specialist journals. Contributions were also made to non-accredited journals, books for subject specialists, and textbooks for students. Special mention should be made of the involvement of faculty members as co-editors and co-authors in the comprehensive work entitled Clinical Forensic Medicine and Medical Jurisprudence, which will be available in electronic format. Staff members furthermore presented papers at national and international conferences, while various study trips abroad were also undertaken.

Faculty members contributed to the creation and launching of two new journals. The African Human Rights Law Journal is a product of the Centre for Human Rights, which focuses on developments in the field of human rights in Africa. Some of the dissertations of students participating in the LLM programme in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa have been published in this journal. The South African Insolvency Law Review is a product of the Centre for Advanced Corporate and Insolvency Law, in collaboration with the Rand Afrikaans University. The aim of the journal is to provide a regularly updated overview of the entire study field of Insolvency Law, as well as to publish some in-depth articles.

The Faculty is proud of the awards made to some of its members in recognition for their achievements in research: Professors JMT Labuschagne and TJ Scott were once again recognised as excellent academic performers, while Professors CH Heyns and FJ Viljoen each received a first award in this regard. Prof DG Kleyn and Mr JJ de Gama received the Mellon Award for the promotion of the latter's doctoral studies. Professors C Nicholson and K van Marle received awards from the University's Research Development Programme for the period 2001-2003. Prof J le Roux was awarded a study and research scholarship from the Institute of International Public Law and International Relations, Aristotle University of Thessalonika in Greece for attending a seminar on International Criminal Law. She is presently engaged in the development of an LLM module in this field.

Postdoctoral exchange programmes are being managed actively. In view of the Faculty's co-operation agreement with the Charles University in Prague, Prof J Pribhan visited the University as postdoctoral fellow while Prof Van Marle went to Prague to conduct research there. Prof Van Marle also spent a period of six months as postdoctoral research fellow at the Research Unit for Legal and Constitutional Interpretation at the University of Stellenbosch. Prof D Roithmayer from the University of Illinois (Urbana, Champagne) lectured here in her place.

The Faculty puts a high premium on the requirement for academic staff to finish their doctoral studies, and thus three members of staff (Messrs R Cloete, WP de Villiers and A van der Linde) obtained the LLD degree during 2001.

In order to stimulate research among personnel, the Faculty has introduced four prizes from its own funds, which will be awarded annually, namely a prize for the best article by a junior researcher, for the best article by a senior researcher, for the best joint article, and for the best book.

In its effort to pursue excellence the Faculty places special emphasis on its postgraduate study programmes. As a result of this, the intake of undergraduate students dropped during 2001, but the number of postgraduate students increased considerably. The lectured LLM programme in particular seems to be very popular. This programme has been restructured to the extent that the scaled-down dissertation was abolished and replaced by a written research component that is required in each of the four prescribed modules. The Faculty's LLM committee is continuously involved in the development of the programme as well as in the application of quality control.

As far as non-formal training is concerned, three new short courses were designed and introduced. The different centres in the Faculty have also been dynamically involved in academic and community service activities. Under the aegis of the Centre for Human Rights, a second group of students graduated in the LLM course for Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa, while staff members of the Centre were actively involved in a variety of research projects, for example, a series of publications on socio-economic rights.

A first group of students completed the LLM in Child Law, which is co-ordinated by the Centre for Child Law. The Centre also succeeded in supplying a soundtrack in Zulu for its video that prepares and protects children against sexual abuse. The video has previously been available in English and Afrikaans only.

The Centre for Advanced Corporate and Insolvency Law was involved in the completion of the Department of Justice's research project on administration orders.

Undergraduate students who take part in international moot court competitions carry out extensive research and receive credits for the subject Moot Court 420. The students of the Law Faculty did exceptionally well during 2001 since they achieved a second place in the All-African Human Rights Moot Court Competition (Pretoria) and the Commonwealth Moot Court Competition (Sri Lanka). Our team also won the national round of the Philip Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition.

The Faculty went through a process of restructuring following the abolishment of the Department of Legal Pluralism and Hermeneutics. At present the Faculty consists of the following: Department of Private Law, Department of Mercantile Law, Department of Public Law, Department of Procedural Law, Department of Legal History, Comparative Law and Jurisprudence, and the Centre for Human Rights, which also functions as an academic department.