Professor Christina S. Ho, the Associate Dean for Research, Development and New Programs at Rutgers University Law School, New Jersey, USA, visited the Centre for Legal Integration in Africa (CLIA) on 14 March 2022. CLIA was formed in October 2020 to pioneer research on the interaction of legal orders in Africa.

A group of five Juris Doctor students accompanied Prof. Ho on her visit. They include Ms Shannon Cohall, Mr Kyle Jablonski, Ms Asia Norton, Ms Emily Rathburn, and Ms Deven Amin.
 

The visitors engaged in an hour-long interactive session on comparative law issues with the Deputy Dean for Undergraduate Studies, Prof. Lea Mwambene, and CLIA Director, Prof. Anthony Diala. The discussions ranged from recent customary law decisions in South Africa and New Zealand to mixed race relations in the USA and legal harmonisation in sub-Saharan Africa.

The visitors explored opportunities for collaborative research, as well as guest lectures and exchange visits of UWC staff and students to Rutgers’ University in 2023. The students, some of whom are visiting the continent for the first time, expressed their delight at learning about South African cultures.

Professors Mwambene and Diala brought the visitors up to speed about their research on the interaction of legal orders in South Africa. Their current field work investigates the core values of indigenous African laws in the Limpopo and Eastern Cape provinces with the aid of a grant from the National research Foundation of South Africa.