Faculty of Law
The Midlands State University Faculty of Law is located in Gweru in the Midlands Province of Zimbabwe. It is situated approximately 5 kilometers from the City Centre. It is located at the Graduate School of Business Leadership, Faculty of Law and Faculty of Commerce Campus. The Faculty averages a student enrolment of 100 students per intake. Designated by the Council for Legal Education on the 7th of March 2007, the Midlands State University Law School marks an important chapter in Zimbabwean legal history as it is the first law school to be successfully established in post-independence Zimbabwe. Driven by our motto, Pioneering for a better legal frontier, we have cultivated a culture of hunger for more knowledge as we believe that knowledge is power. Our wide network is made possible, by our enterprising Vice Chancellor and teaching staff who hail from diverse legal backgrounds. We have ingrained this culture in our alumni who are ever widening their circle of influence while advertising their cradle on the regional and international arena.
The Law School is geared towards providing quality legal education that is relevant to the needs of the country and the world. From the first day of orientation to the final gathering at graduation, the Law School offers an extraordinary experience. Producing legal professionals that are meticulous, conversant, diverse and adaptive within the global village is the law school’s passion. In addition to our well-resourced library, our lecturer-student ratio allows us to offer a vast array of courses. With an average class size of 100 students and countless opportunities for independent research, writing, and various moot court competitions, the school offers a conducive environment for studying law. The Law school also seeks to expand its networks by establishing partnerships with other academic institutions worldwide. In pursuit of the objective of cross pollinating ideas, the Faculty of Law is a member of the International Association of Law Schools (IALS) and has a Student and Staff Exchange Agreements with North West University, South Africa, Rhodes University, South Africa, the International University College of Turin, Italy, Tilburg University, Netherlands. The Faculty of Law also cooperates with partner universities in the Disability Rights and Law.
The Faculty currently offers the following programmes:
- Bachelor of Laws Honours degree (LLBS)
- Master of Laws in Constitutional and Human Rights Law( LLM) with various areas of specialisation
- Master of Corporate and Commercial Law
- Diploma in Paralegal Studies
FACULTY OF LAW Education 5.0 Agenda
The Midlands State University Law School is the first law school to be successfully established in post-independence Zimbabwe, being designated as such by the Council for Legal Education on the 7th of March 2007. Driven by our motto, Pioneering for a better legal frontier, we have cultivated a culture of hunger for more knowledge which is underpinned by development imperatives. The Law School is geared towards providing quality legal education that is relevant to the needs of the country and the international arena. Producing legal professionals that are meticulous, conversant, diverse and adaptive within the global village is the law school’s passion. The Law School is championing national developmental aspirations by offering a curriculum that supports a Heritage based higher education system.
The Faculty aims to lead in teaching and learning by making use of modern technology and artificial intelligence that is relevant for legal education. These aspirations have already been taken into account in the design of the new law school in Kwekwe. On the internationalisation front the Faculty of Law intends to widen the scope of regional and international moot court competitions that it participates in. These moot courts are an important pedagogical tool in legal education and the Faculty aspires to be a leading Law School on the global scene by 2030.
Currently the Faculty’s research outputs are satisfactory with our MSU Law Review as one of its leading research outputs. Ehe Faculty aims to have international accreditation for the Law Review. In addition, the Faculty aims to ensure that it has increased research output by all its members.
Currently the Faculty undertakes innovation and industrialisation primarily through its Law Clinic, which serves as the “legal incubation hub”. In the Law Clinic students have practical legal training whereby they apply the theoretical aspects learnt to practical real life cases. Students go out into the community to provide legal advice to the community as form of community engagement. Further, the community engagement component is enhanced through prison visits whereby students visit prisons, interview the inmates with the intention to subsequently offer them legal services such as legal representation. Students also conduct street law sessions whereby they teach law to the communities. This is an innovative way of assisting students to retain knowledge better by teaching it to others.
The Clinic seeks to continue with the running programmes which are prison visits, mobile law clinic and street law. Secondly, establishing a help desk at the Magistrates Court in Gweru. This is necessitated by the need to ease access to the Clinic considering the fact that the Clinic is situated out of town yet most litigants are situated at the other end of town. The same approach will be adapted to the Kwekwe campus context where the Faculty of Law will be migrating to.