Prestigious achievements are no longer uncommon for Prof Louis Kotzé, although this humble research professor in environmental law at the Faculty of Law at the North-West University (NWU) will differ from anyone who says so.

In January last year he was informed that his application for European Commission Horizon 2020 Marie Curie funding had been successful. He had been awarded €180 000 for a period of 24 months, and in October 2017 he departed for the Lincoln University in Britain, followed by six months at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, after which he will spend the remaining time at Lincoln once more.

Now Prof Kotzé has been appointed as a judge in the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (PPT) for Human Rights, Fracking and Climate Change.

The PPT, which is headquartered in Rome, is an internationally recognised civil community and human rights tribunal that functions independently of state authority. It applies internationally recognised human rights legislation to cases brought before it.  

Prof Kotzé, who is regarded as one of the leading environmental law experts in the country, has two doctorates as well as a National Research Foundation P-rating to his name, and is the author of, among other things, the book Global Environmental Constitutionalism in the Anthropocene.

Before he left on his international travels, he said that one of his main objectives was to expand the internationalisation of the NWU and bring a global network back to Africa. He is truly achieving this with great success.

Prof Louis Kotzé.