360º PERSPECTIVES | ISSUE 7 | 2020/2021
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Justice in service of the South African nation » Growing up in Lenasia, Judge Shanaaz Christine Mia was convinced that expertise in the fields of psychology and law would be most needed in the country in future. When she finally had to make a choice, she chose law. FTER COMPLETING a BA LLB degree at
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the University of Cape Town (UCT), Judge Mia chose to complete her LLM degree in 2002 at the University of the Western Cape (UWC). Judge Mia says, “UCT focused more on commercial law
whereas UWC was focused on communitybased law. Because I was a family lawyer and was interested in children’s rights I was attracted to UWC’s Master’s degree programme that focused squarely on children’s rights.” At the time, the courts treated children as adults within the criminal justice system and they were held in the same cells as adults. The justice system also did not consider children’s voices in disputes related to their care. Judge Mia worked as a public defender at Legal Aid SA and as a labour law researcher at UWC’s Faculty of Law. While at UWC, she >>