Olowu resumes as founding dean of AUN’s Law Faculty

A South Africa-based Nigerian legal luminary, Dr. Oladejo Justus Olowu, Monday resumed as the founding dean of law at the American University of Nigeria (AUN).

AUN is expected to apply for accreditation for its law programme later this year, according to an official statement released in Yola, Adamawa State, by the institution.

Olowu, who practiced before going into lecturing, worked as Professor of Law and Director of Postgraduate Studies and Research at the North-West University (NWU), Mafikeng, South Africa, having joined the NWU in January 2010. He previously worked for Walter Sisulu University and University of Fort Hare, both in South Africa.

“With his impressive background, credentials and experience, all of us at AUN are thrilled to welcome Dr. Olowu as our founding dean,” said AUN’s President, Dr. Margee Ensign

On his vision for the new job, Olowu said, “My focus is on how to jump-start our Faculty of Law on a glorious scale. That must be our commitment.”

After his first degree, Olowu proceeded to the Nigerian Law School and was subsequently called to the Nigerian Bar in 1992. He has two masters’ of law degrees from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, and the University of Pretoria, Pretoria, in conjunction with the University of the Western Cape, Cape Town.

At the University of Notre Dame in the United States between 2002-2004, Olowu earned the doctorate cum laude in Juridical Science, having previously been at Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland (2003) for the Advanced Diploma in International Human Rights Protection.

Olowu is a fellow of the Salzburg Global Seminar and holds several awards in recognition of his interdisciplinary works.

Widely published in many international peer-reviewed/refereed journals, Olowu began university teaching at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife (1997-2000), where he had his first law degree in 1991, going on to the University of Ibadan, Ibadan (2000-2002), University of Notre Dame in the U.S.A., and the University of the South Pacific, Vanuatu.

His teaching and research interests embrace international human rights law, public international law, comparative constitutionalism, and legal theory.