Law might be the smallest of the six faculties, but its footprint is large – whether you're talking about the impact its staff and students continue to have on society, the largesse of its alumni, or the diversity of research coming out of departments and research units.

Law might be the smallest of the six faculties, but its footprint is large – whether you're talking about the impact its staff and students continue to have on society, the largesse of its alumni, or the diversity of research coming out of departments and research units.

As a consequence of the excellent leadership provided by past deans, I had the privilege of being appointed dean to a faculty of high repute. The faculty makes a significant contribution to legal education and intellectual discourse both nationally and internationally. We are the only faculty of law in Africa rated in the top 100 law faculties in the world; our current ranking is 40.

We are the smallest of UCT's six faculties, consisting of three departments (commercial, private and public law) and multiple research units. We have over a thousand students, 43% of whom are masters or doctorate students. In addition we teach law courses to over 2 500 students in other faculties. The demographic profile of our students is slowly normalising. At present black, coloured and Indian students constitute 40% of the student body (49% in the LLB), and 41% are white (48% in the LLB). Some 19% are international (35% at the postgraduate level).

The university and faculty's mission statements emphasise excellence and equity. As a law faculty we recognise the role that law played in creating an oppressive and divided society, and commit ourselves to teaching and research that is of the highest quality; developing all staff and students to their fullest potential; and promoting an institutional culture founded on mutual tolerance, respect, understanding, integrity and openness, one which values our common humanity and which celebrates and promotes diversity. In the pursuit of all these goals we hope to contribute to redressing the inequality and disparity that continues to exist within South African society.

For me, there is a direct link between diversity and excellence. It is not sufficient for scholarship to simply be reproduced; it needs to be developed. Diversity is an essential tool in optimising this capacity to develop. Diversity allows us to broaden our vision of possibilities and question our claimed 'truths'. The way in which we interpret things is contextually contingent on past, immediate and imagined future contexts. The interactions of diverse histories and traditions give rise to multiple questions which allow us to expand the boundaries of our own and of communal knowledge; and in doing so, to reconstruct our institution.

If we are serious about addressing historical inequalities we should acknowledge that hierarchy is embedded in social structure and is reproduced in the law faculty. In order to successfully change the demographics of the student body we need not only to provide academic and financial support, but also to question our teaching practices and curriculum.

A revised curriculum was introduced in 2012. We were fortunate to be able to appoint Professor Lesley Greenbaum, a legal education specialist, who has guided us in improving throughput rates and developing a successful extended curriculum programme. Hugh Corder and his team have been very proactive in raising money for bursaries, and involving law firms in supporting existing students. Our strategy was primarily to attract talented black learners to UCT to do law, while also offering some support to our master's and PhD cohort. R10.3-million has been invested in students between 2009 and this year.

Our faculty is also committed to meeting the needs of a transforming society. In the three years since the inauguration of the university's social responsiveness award, it has twice been awarded to members of the law faculty. Many of our students are active in civil society – in addition to their compulsory 60 hours of community service. All departments and research units are in some way engaged with socially responsive research. Given our small size and high staff-to-student ratio, the research output of our teaching staff is remarkable. A multitude of authored and edited books are produced, alongside more than 100 articles per annum.

This supplement is a small sample of that commitment and abundance. For more information on our faculty, please visit: law.uct.ac.za

Photo by Michael Hammond

Read more stories from the March 2015 edition.