UKZN Student Wins SA Law Reform Essay Competition

The University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) Bachelor of Laws (LLB) candidate Mr Kudakwashe Mawowa’s innovative ideas for law reform in South Africa earned him first place in the 2025 South African Law Reform (SALRC) Essay Competition.

Dedicated to the memory of the late Chief Justice Pius Nkonzo Langa, the annual competition is open to all Law students studying towards an LLB or a Master of Laws (LLM) at a South African university.

The aim of the competition is to honour a range of South African legal achievers who have dedicated their lives to the advancement of the country’s constitutional democracy.

‘Exploring Capabilities of Artificial Intelligence in Writing Legal Judgments’, is the title of Mawowa’s essay which is based on an original research project he completed under the supervision of Professor Donrich Thaldar.

His research involved a small, purposeful, comparative, experimental sample of how well large language model AI tools could function as a judicial drafting assistant.

Said Mawowa: “The research is novel in comparatively examining an AI written judgment against a real South African High Court judgment, raising an important question about the potential of AI to lessen judicial workloads.”

The study found that AI holds significant potential to accelerate workflow, support multilingual access, and enhance transparency and traceability of the judgment-writing process.

“This is a much-needed conversation given that a lot of the current public conversation around AI involves ‘hype’ and ‘moral panic’ with no critical examination being done yet. The competition offered the ideal opportunity to challenge myself and explore that intellectual curiosity on a topic relating to the modernisation and reform around judicial drafting methods as initially suggested by my supervisor,” said Mawowa.

Having completed his LLB degree this year, Mawowa is working on a presentation based on a revised and updated version of the same research co-written with Thaldar. He aspires to pursue an LLM in AI, Cybersecurity, Data and Technology Law.

He will present his research at the 2025 Southern African Conference for Artificial Intelligence Research in Cape Town in December.

“Winning the competition has boosted my confidence to pursue more ambitious research and to engage critically with emerging legal challenges, especially in areas shaped by rapid technological change,” Mawowa added.

Words: Thandiwe Jumo

Photograph: Supplied