The Faculty of Law (UP Law) at the University of Pretoria (UP) announces with pride and congratulates 2020 alumnus Nicholas Herd on yet another great achievement from his pen dipped in legal ink.

The Administrative Justice Association of South Africa Student Essay Competition (AdJASA) awarded the second prize in this competition to Mr Nicholas Herd with his essay titled ‘Watching The World Burn? Do Public Functionaries have a General, Constitutional Obligation to Investigate and Remedy Suspected Impropriety in Their Remit?’

Following on a successful 2019 competition, AdJASA again organised a student essay competition open to all undergraduate law students in South Africa in 2020.  Students had to write essays of between 4 000 and 6 000 words dealing with any Administrative law topic. Despite the challenging conditions that 2020 also brought for students and universities, AdJASA received a host of excellent law student entries from seven law schools across South Africa.

The 2020 judging panel consisted of Prof Hugh Corder, Adv Karrisha Pillay SC and Dr Peter Volmink. Following rigorous assessment of all entries, the other following essays came out tops and UP Law extends congratulations to these students too.

First prize: Ms Laura Chandler with an essay titled ‘A Legal Comparative Analysis of Automated Decision-Making and Reasonableness in Administrative Law’; Third prize: Mr Bradley Frolick with an essay titled ‘The Granting of Mining Rights Over Cultural (Heritage) Land in South Africa and Canada – A Comparative Analysis’; and although the competition only provided for prizes for the top three essays, the essay that obtained fourth position was of such high quality and so close to the third place that AdJASA decided to make an exception and also award a fourth prize to Robin Titus for an essay titled ‘The Viability of the Principle of Proportionality In South African Administrative Law’.

The judges commended all students for the high quality of their essays and were particularly impressed with the top entries.  Prof Geo Quinot (Stellenbosch), the co-ordinator of the competition, remarked that Chandler’s and Herd’s essays were competitively “neck-and-neck” and expressed hope that Nicholas would publish his essay in the near future.

Herd responded to being recognised for his essay and placing second as follows:

'I submitted my entry last year on virtually no sleep, hours after completing my final LLB exam — but with a wealth of knowledge and insight gained, and sure that I have an incredible support system.

I am grateful to UP Law and the University for equipping me with the experiences, skills and understanding necessary to achieve at this level. My essay was derivative of my LLB dissertation. So, in particular, I would like to express my respect, admiration and gratitude to and for Dr Melanie Murcott for being a rigorous, instructive, patient and kind supervisor, mentor and supporter. I am beyond appreciative.

And congratulations to the other prize winners! I am eager to read their entries and engage with their contributions.'

Herd has been recognised for his work before, receiving the National Yunus Mahomed Public Interest Award (YMPIA) for Law/Business/Ethics for his article in the 2019 Pretoria Student Law Review,  ‘Should the flag fit, or must we acquit?’.

Herd is currently serving vocational practical legal training as a candidate attorney at Adams & Adams. Herd completed his LLB with distinction and served on the editorial board of the PSLR and as the Chief Justice of the Constitutional Tribunal (Student Court) at UP in 2020. Nicholas’ extra-curricular accomplishments include inter alia winning, coaching and judging in several national and internal moot court competitions: winning the National Child Law Moot in his first year; winning the 27th African Moot Court Competition in his second year; and coaching the UP Team to the finals of the 28th African Moot Court Competition in his third year.