Professor Ambreena Manji

Professor Ambreena Manji discusses Cardiff University’s Global Justice Pro Bono programme and the international legal work that her students carry out in Africa.

Watch Ambreena's interview on YouTube.

Transcript

"I was the Director of the British Institute in Eastern Africa between 2010 and 2014. I specialise in land law and development so my interests are predominantly in land law reform.

When the opportunity arose to come to Cardiff we were particularly attracted by the reputation that Cardiff has as a leading centre for Socio-Legal research. That was the reason that I was attracted to the idea of coming to work here.

We founded the Law and Global Justice Centre and particularly the Pro Bono scheme because we believe that law isn’t just something you know, it’s also something you do. And so the Global Justice Pro Bono programme is an opportunity for our students to prepare law cases relating to trans-national legal issues, so, for example, to work on cases in Kenya - to draw on our expertise and to prepare legal cases on behalf of lawyers.

What I like most about Cardiff is its multilingualism.I find it really important - the idea that we are a bilingual University, we are not just monoglot English speakers here. It’s incredibly important because Cardiff is outward-looking, Wales is outward-looking. It has this international tradition and it is proud of its international traditions. It’s not just possible to do that sort of work from Cardiff, it is absolutely crucial to be in a place like Cardiff with an international outlook in order to do the sort of work we want to do."