Law book remembers Larkin's contribution

Legal-wise: (From left) Jacqui Yeats, Etienne Swanepoel, Prof PJ Schwikkard & Tshepo Mongalo at the launch of this year's Acta Juridica.

The dedication of this year's Acta Juridica publication to the late commercial law professor Mike Larkin is befitting.

Titled Modern Comparative Law for a Competitive South African Economy, the book gives academics and practitioners - the target audience - useful articles on the latest developments in the company law, an area that was close to Larkin's heart. Larkin was the head of the commercial law department at UCT when he was mugged and murdered in Rondebosch in 2007.

Acta Juridica is an annual thematic peer review (the successor to Butterworths South African Law Review), published since 1958by the Faculty of Law in conjunction with Juta. Each edition focuses on that year's current legal issue. This year's edition has been edited by the faculty's Associate Professor Tshepo Mongalo.

At the recent launch of the book, Mongalo noted that the latest edition reflects on the 2008 Companies Act, and attempts to balance its focus on both large and small companies, without adopting a one-size fits-all approach.

Practitioner Eitienne Swanepoel said the book is "an outstanding collection" of articles that provides insight into the importance of the new company law.