Page 6 - Law Academic Newsletter 2015

Final bench
a well-rounded experience of how court proceedings are run as well as how legal principles relating to child law are deliberated on by the courts.
The University of Johannesburg and Rhodes University advanced to the final rounds of the competition held at the North Gauteng High Court. The bench of the final round was made up of Judge Jody Kollapen, Acting Chief Magistrate Daniel Thulare and Advocate Steven Budlender. We were also honoured with the presence of the Deputy Judge President Ledwaba (the Deputy Judge President of the North Gauteng High Court) who gave a few words of wisdom and encouragement to the teams.
The final round proved to be a wonderful learning experience for the participating students as a result of their interactions with the judges who deliberated very carefully on the matter before them and kept the students thinking on their feet about the arguments they were advancing. Rhodes University emerged winners of the competition and one of their participants was found to be the best speaker. The University of Johannesburg’s heads of argument were found to be the best heads of argument.
The Centre is thankful to Juta for sponsoring the prizes that were given to the participating teams. It is encouraged by the continued show of interest in the competition by law students and the influence the competition plays in exposing law students to different facets of child law and the related litigation. The Centre will continue to grow the competition and looks forward to hosting the 2015 Annual Child Law Moot Court Competition.
Zita Hansungule
Monitoring, Evaluation and Communication Centre for Child Law
University of Pretoria
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