With the University of Johannesburg (UJ) kicking off the last of the year’s graduation ceremonies this week, the Faculty of Law boasts two of its LLM students who have recently made history.
It is the first time that four accredited articles from mini-dissertations are published in the same year by LLM students doing their LLM by course work. Their mini-dissertations were in both instances published as an article consisting of two parts each, thus accounting for the four units.
Ms Annemarie Friedman completed her third LLM degree in 2011 and was awarded the Spoor and Fisher prize for the best LLM dissertation in that year. What makes her achievement remarkable is that she is married, busy raising a child and was senior legal advisor to the National Credit Regulator at the time. She is currently doing her pupillage at the Johannesburg Bar in order to practise as an advocate. Her study leader was Professor JM Otto.
Her topic was the influence of the National Credit Act of 2005 on the ultra duplum rule. This is an ancient rule stemming from the Romans which entail that arrear and unpaid interest may not exceed the outstanding capital at the time. Otto co-authored the articles after having revised the dissertation, and after having added additional authorities and material for purposes of publication of the dissertation in the form of articles. It was the first time in Professor Otto’s career that he acted as co-author with an LLM student.
Ms Reneé-Louise Aucamp recently completed her LLM degree cum laude with distinctions in all modules with a final mark of 83%. She is an attorney of the High Court of South Africa as well as a solicitor of the High Court of England and Wales. She worked full time as an attorney while studying towards her LLM and had a baby half way through her studies. She completed her mini-dissertation under Professor SF du Toit and was awarded the Spoor and Fisher prize for the best LLM dissertation in 2012. Her topic concerned the incidental credit agreement, a new and controversial concept introduced into South African law by the National Credit Act. Her dissertation is also published in two parts, accounting for two credits in favour of the University. In her case it is a matter of “aartjie na haar vaartjie” (the apple does not fall far from the tree). Her father is Professor JM Otto who has been a professor at this university in the Faculty of Law for 32 years.
