Hanri Mostert

Professor Hanri Mostert's undergraduate studies in Humanities and Law at Stellenbosch University piqued her interest in the resource potential of land. Throughout her doctoral studies she pursued the question of how land - as a scarce resource of great public importance - could be appropriately regulated, whilst simultaneously private claims to it could be acknowledged.

Having honed her research skills at the Max Planck Institute for Public and International Law in Heidelberg, Germany, she completed her doctorate in 2000. Since then, through her appointments at Stellenbosch University (2001 and 2008), the University of Cape Town (since 2008) and the University of Groningen (since 2010), she shares her insights with new generations of property law students. Her work has had impact both locally and internationally, through her involvement in the International Alliance for Land Tenure and Administration, and the support she provided to the South African Law Commission, World Bank and counsel in international and national litigation.

Hanri emphasises the state's duties to achieve better living standards and ensure responsible individual autonomy. She defends the notion of engaged citizenship in the enhancement of freedom and quality of life for individuals and the community and comments on the role of the judiciary in building a society subscribing to principles of accountability and trust in property law.

Prof Mostert is rated by the National Research Foundation (NRF) as an internationally renowned researcher. She also held fellowships of the Commonwealth Programme, the Max Planck Foundation, the German Academic Exchange Service and the Alexander Von Humboldt Foundation. The South African Department of Science and Technology nominated her as a finalist for the Young Women in Science Award 2012.

Expertise/ Research Interests

Prof Mostert's original interests in property law matured into specialisations in Land Law and Mineral Law. In these fields, she has contributed to the most authoritative sources on South African Law, addressing issues of constitutional property protection, landlessness, tenure security, restitution, nationalisation, land governance and mineral resource regulation. Her work on mineral law has been cited with approval by both the Supreme Court of Appeal and the Constitutional Court in South Africa.

Representative Works

• Badenhorst PJ, Pienaar JM & Mostert H, Silberberg & Schoeman's The Law of Property, 5th ed (2006, LexisNexis Butterworths: Durban) ISBN: 9780409053185 (SC) / 9780409053198 (HC).
• Mostert H, Mineral Law: Principles and Policy in Perspective (2012, Juta: Cape Town) ISBN 9780409052015.
• Mostert H & Pope A, (eds) The Principles of the Law of Property in South Africa (2010,Oxford University Press: Cape Town). ISBN: 9780195984040. Translated from the English by Scott J as Mostert H & Pope A, (eds) Die Beginsels van die Sakereg in Suid-Afrika (2010, Oxford University Press: Cape Town) ISBN: 9780195986440.
• Mostert H, "Nuisance", in Visser D and Reid E (eds) Private Law And Human Rights (2013, Edinburgh University Press: Edinburgh) ISBN: 0748684174 / 9780748684175.
• Mostert H, "Engaged Citizenship and the Enabling State as Factors Determining the Interference Parameter of Property - A Comparison of German and South African Law 2010 (2) South African Law Journal 238-273.