FACULTY OF LAW
Law schools are on the cusp of a historic moment in higher education in South Africa and will have to take a leadership role in shaping the future of legal education, says Prof Wesahl Domingo Prof Wesahl Domingo, new Executive Dean of the Faculty of Law
Prof Wesahl Domingo, new Executive Dean of the Faculty of Law, brings a wealth of academic administrative and management experience to her new role. Over the course of her career, her teaching and research interests have focused on family law, succession, gender studies, legal education and legal pluralism. She has appeared on television and radio as an academic expert in the field of family law and legal pluralism. As an accredited family law mediator she does family law mediation training for NGOs and runs community workshops for women on culture and religion within marriage and divorce. She was an editor for the South African Journal of Human Rights (SAJHR) for 10 years. She is also the co-editor and writer of the textbook, Law of Persons and Family. In 2019, Prof Domingo was elected as the Deputy Chairperson of Senate of the University of the Witwatersrand – the second woman, and first woman of colour, to hold this position in the 98-year history of the university. She is a Commissioner of the South African Law Reform Commission and also the President of the South African Law Dean’s Association.
After 18 years as Associate Professor at the Oliver Schreiner School of Law at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Prof Domingo took up her new position as Executive Dean of UJ’s Faculty of Law in March this year. Her vision and strategic direction centre on innovation in legal education, innovation in teaching and learning, global excellence and stature, the move into 4IR, and innovative thinking around institutional culture. “My objectives will be to consolidate the things that are working; investigate, review and reform/transform what does not work; innovate to drive and enhance global excellence and stature; and sustain and enhance faculty excellence.” Law schools are on the cusp of a historic moment in higher education in South Africa, she says. “We will have to take a leadership role in shaping the future of legal education – change is inevitable. Post-COVID-19, we do know that we will never teach, learn and research in the same way again. The bulk of our present students and those coming in the next five years, will be ‘digital natives’, while for at least the next decade, the majority of our teaching staff are likely to be ‘digital immigrants’.
Prof Wesahl Domingo brings a wealth of experience to her new role.
“While we are not sure what the future holds, we do know that at the UJ Faculty of Law we will embrace hybrid online teaching and learning methods in our classes, we will continue our research and teaching in the area of 4IR and we will continue to transform and innovate for a future reimagined.” Finding the intersection between law and the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) will be an important objective under her leadership. UJ is committed to equipping law students with the necessary technical and legal knowledge they need to create and implement responsible programmes and policy frameworks relating to the ever- expanding area of law and 4IR, she says. The law is adjusting to ongoing waves of technological disruption with new technologies coming to market and transforming business at an extraordinary speed. In an era of digital transformation, innovative products and services are becoming available before the regulatory landscape has even had the opportunity to weigh in. “Law faculties are under
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