Emory’s I.T. Cohen Professor of International Law and Human Rights Johan van der Vyver was appointed to the position of extraordinary professor at the University of Pretoria in South Africa Monday.

The appointment, which will start in May 2010, will be a three-year appointment to the department of private law, where van der Vyver will act primarily as a professor.

In addition to lecturing in the department of private law, van der Vyver will guest lecture in the Centre of Human Rights as well as work closely with that department.

Van der Vyver said that he was honored to be appointed an extraordinary, or transient, professor.

“It’s a great honor to be selected for this position because in South Africa, I am well past the retirement age of 65,” van der Vyver said. “For them to offer me this position was special.”

University of Pretoria is the largest residential university in South Africa. The school is known for its Centre for Human Rights, which won the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization award in 2006 for Human Rights Education.

Trynie Boezaart, head of the private law department, cited van der Vyver’s status as a leading expert in international human rights and private law as a determining factor for his appointment.

Van der Vyver was a lecturer and senior lecturer at the Northwest University and later on the dean of the faculty of law at that institution. From the late 1970s until 1995 he was an ad hominem professor of law at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.

“Professor van der Vyver is a world leader and also firmly grounded in South African law,” Boezaart wrote in an e-mail to the Wheel.

Boezaart knew van der Vyver as a colleague at the Northwest University and later on also the dean of the faculty of law at that institution.

Van der Vyver plans to keep his current position as an international law and human rights professor at Emory’s School of Law while serving his appointment with the University of Pretoria. He will lecture at Emory during the summer semester and has not ruled out taking a sabbatical at Emory as well as spending a full semester in South Africa.

According to Boezaart, van der Vyver will also facilitate the involvement of the department of private law in the institute for international law and comparative law soon to be established by the faculty of law at the University of Pretoria.

Van der Vyver said that he believes that the joint appointment will be good for both institutions.

“I think that it’s good for Emory students to know what’s going on in South Africa and for South African students to know what goes on in the United States,” he said.
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— Contact Lance Powell.