Prof. Mia Swart coordinates and teaches the LLM programme in international law at the University of Johannesburg. Mia previously worked as Research Fellow at the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law in London and as Assistant Professor of Public International law and Global Justice at Leiden University, from which she earned her Ph.D in 2006. Under the supervision of Professor John Dugard and funded by Huygens and Mandela scholarships, she completed a thesis on the topic of Judicial Lawmaking at the ad hoc International Criminal Tribunals. She also holds the title of Honorary Associate Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, where she previously worked as Associate Professor. She is a research associate of the South African Institute of Advanced Constitutional, Public and International Law (SAIFAC).
As an NRF rated researcher, Mia focuses her research on transitional justice, international criminal law, and comparative constitutional law. In 2007 and 2009, Mia received a Humboldt research fellowship to do research at the Max Planck Institute in Freiburg and at Berlin’s Humboldt University, from which she holds an LL.M. She worked as an intern in the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in 2001, the same year she was admitted as an attorney.
Mia chairs the Complementarity Committee of the International Law Association. In 2014 Mia co-organised an Advanced Workshop on Transitional Justice, bringing together South African, Palestinian and Israeli students. She consulted for the United Nations Development Programme in Palestine in 2014 and 2015. Her report focused on legal integration between the West Bank and Gaza.
Her expert legal opinion on the international law aspects of rhino poaching was presented to the Minister of Environmental Affairs in 2015.
Mia’s work has been cited by courts such as the Cape High Court as well as the International Criminal Court. She also regularly contributes to local and international media.
