Our Educational Vision and Mission
- Empowering lawyers and business executives to become new leaders in Africa: advising and guiding clients with world class skills and insights
- Enable regulators and other public officials to create and enforce existing laws and regulations through exposure to cutting edge development in business, law and finance
Two major concerns drive the establishment of the ILI South African Centre for Excellence (ILI-SACE):
- That Africa is not fully prepared to play the role that it should be playing in fostering development on the continent and
- That the continent is not fully prepared to play the leadership role that it should be playing on the world stage. Among other concerns, Africa must prepare to meet the 21st century challenges of new forms of trade, investment, and infrastructure and our relations with partners around the world. One key to facing these challenges is increased private-public cooperation within African states and regionally.
To these ends ILI-SACE will offer courses that explore how laws and regulations and issues of finance and corporate governance impact business management and government. Our courses will explore a range of subjects that are central to the work of African lawyers, and business executives, and public officials and to African development in the 21st century. Our teachers are leading global specialists in their fields and our students will be lawyers from private practice and government service, business executives, and public administrators. Together teachers and students will share insights, analyse common problems, and explore how law and regulation work to foster (or impede) development.
The focus is on practical problems and practical solutions. The hallmarks of the program will be case studies from Africa and elsewhere, problem-solving, interdisciplinary teaching, and emphasis on creative thinking.
There will be an exposition of issues critical to Africa’s development and growing leadership role on the world stage and a focus on integrity in both the private and public sector. One goal is facilitating communication and understanding between lawyers and their private and public clients and creating networks of lawyers and business executives and public administrators across the continent. Our courses will be characterized by exemplary teaching.
The coronavirus pandemic has recently forced a reset domestically and internationally of how business, law firms, and government agencies work -- requiring institutions across all disciplines to rethink how business, law, and government interact and intersect. Before the pandemic, African nations were already struggling with disruptive forces of climate change, the fourth industrial revolution, artificial intelligence, a growing demographic of youth and an increasing elderly population, and the increasing competition among the major powers for Africa’s attention. All of These phenomena require new and creative thinking about the role of law, regulation, finance and governance within African countries, across the continent, and across the globe. The jobs of lawyers, business executives and public administrators will continue to evolve at a rapid pace.