Jonathan Klaaren is a Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, serving in the Law School at the Faculty of Commerce, Law & Management and in the Faculty of Humanities with the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WiSER).  He works in the areas of competition & regulation, access to justice, law & migration, and socio-legal studies.  

His most recent book is From Prohibited Immigrants to Citizens: The Origins of Citizenship and Nationality in South Africa (2017).  His current research interests are in the African legal profession (including access to justice), competition law and economic regulation, and the organization of public interest litigation in South Africa.  He has served on a number of editorial committees and boards including those of the South African Journal on Human Rights, Law & Society Review, and Law & Policy.  He holds a Phd in sociology from Yale University and law degrees from Columbia (JD) and Wits (LLB).  He served as Head/Dean of the Wits Law School from 2010 to 2013 and as Director of the School’s Mandela Institute from 2005 to 2007.  In 2016, he was appointed and served as an Acting Judge on the High Court of South Africa (South Gauteng).