RESEARCH and teaching of the public law of the sea are co-ordinated by the Institute of Marine and Environmental Law under the direction of Prof Jan Glazewski.

Prof Derry Devine, immediate past director and the Institute have been closely involved with the evolution of the international law of the sea and its application to the SA seaboard. He was the prime author of the SA Maritime Zones Act. Prof Devine has practised in his native Ireland, Kenya and Belgium, and although now retired continues to give valuable teaching and dissertation supervision input.

The Institute was founded in 1980 to collate information and research and to develop tuition at the Law Faculty of all aspects of the law of the sea. It publishes an annual journal Sea Changes, and monitors international developments in the field. Its work is the more relevant to the SA context because of the opening up of extensive offshore diamond fields off the SA and neighbouring Namibian coasts, and the development of offshore oilfields off the southern Cape coast.

Courses offered by the Faculty through the Institute include The International Law of the Sea, Marine Resources Law, Coastal Zone Law and Oceans Law. The courses provide comprehensive study, in small classes and discussion groups, of the jurisprudence of the high seas and the regime of coastal and landlocked states in relation to maritime matters. Of particular relevance is marine pollution and the jurisdiction and control of the exploration of marine resources. The Institute has its own website, where you will find more information about its activities.

All public law courses are half course modules. Two courses are thus required for a Graduate Diploma and four for the LLM (also in combination with the Shipping Law courses),

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