Chair in Law of the Sea and Development in Africa

Professor P Vrancken

Faculty: Law

Biosketch

Professor Vrancken was awarded an LLD degree by UCT in 1993. He was the Head of the Department of Public Law at the Nelson Mandela University (formerly NMMU) until June 2013. He has supervised or co-supervised several LLM and LLD students.

He is the author or co-author of more than 50 articles in accredited South African and foreign journals. Professor Vrancken is the editor and co-author of Tourism and the Law in South Africa (2002), the co-editor and co-author of Introduction to Human Rights Law (2009) and the author of South Africa and the Law of the Sea published in 2011 by Martinus Nijhoff Publishers in Boston and Leiden.

Professor Vrancken is currently directly involved in the efforts of the African maritime administrations led by the South African Maritime Safety Authority to build the higher education structures necessary for Africa to meet its human capacity and research needs in coastal and ocean studies.

Relevance of research

Research on the legal frameworks of port assets and activities in the SADC states will substantially advance the knowledge required to ensure that SADC states have in place, implement, monitor compliance with and enforce legal regimes which promote the rule of law at sea, avoid distorting competition between ports and are best suited to the states’ present developmental needs, while being in a position in the years ahead to keep up with, and proactively influence relevant developments at global level.

Current research interests

Professor Vrancken’s research interests include the legal developments affecting the African coasts and maritime environment, the incorporation of the international law of the sea into the domestic legal system of African states and the legal aspects of coastal and marine tourism.

He also recently focussed on the legal regime of ports in the SADC region.

http://lawofthesea.mandela.ac.za

2018 - 2019

Chair in the Law of the Sea and combatting fisheries crime

The SARChI Chair in the Law of the Sea and Development in Africa is part of a South African and continent-wide engagement to develop the law of the sea for Africa by Africa. “Concerted efforts to explore, exploit and protect the maritime zones that surround Africa, aligned with effective legal governance, are essential if the continent is to play a leading role in the ocean economy contributing to a peaceful and equitable international economic order,” says Professor Patrick Vrancken, incumbent of the SARChI Chair in the Law of the Sea and Development in Africa, established in 2013 and renewed for a second five-year cycle until 2023.

The Chair is playing a pivotal research role in developing the law of the sea in South Africa and Africa, and in combatting organised fisheries crime, through PescaDOLUS, an independent research and fisheries crime network co-founded by the Chair.

In an article introducing a 2019 special issue on fisheries crime, in the journal Marine Policy, Prof Vrancken, Dr Emma Witbooi (the Chair’s first Postdoctoral Fellow) and Professor Jan Glazewski from the Institute of Marine and Environmental Law, University of Cape Town, wrote about transnational organised fisheries crime. The article provides insight into the complex, multiple criminal problems currently facing South Africa, Africa and the global fisheries industry, and proffered solutions from a law enforcement perspective.

The work is the first to systematically collate the legal aspects of ocean governance in African countries and is an indispensable reference for all the role players in the African maritime domain, including governments, business, civil society, lawyers, scientists and students.

Advocate Jacques Mahler’s LLD is on the appropriate and sustainable regulation of surfing as an important vector for tourism and coastal development in the African context. Kevashinee Pillay’s doctoral research focuses on the protection of artisanal fishers through the intersection of the law of the sea and human rights law principles, with a specific reference to Africa.

Master’s candidates’ research includes the legal aspects of marine spatial planning; the jurisdiction of organs of state at sea; seafarers’ rights in Namibia; noise pollution at sea; renewable ocean energy; the 2009 FAO Port State Control Agreement; and marine plastic pollution.

“Overall, what is needed,” says Prof Vrancken, “is a more positive, proactive attitude towards the complexities of state ocean jurisdiction and the existing scope of the state’s duties towards the marine environment, and, more specifically, the protection of marine living resources.”

Ocean governance in Africa

Professor Patrick Vrancken is the co-editor of The Law of the Sea: The African Union and its Member States, published in 2017. The other co-editor is Emeritus Professor Martin Tsamenyi, a former director of the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS) and adviser to Ghana on maritime boundaries issues and fisheries governance.

Website: lawofthesea.mandela.ac.za

Facebook: www.facebook.com/SAlawofthesea