Leon Gerber is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Public Law.  He holds the degrees LLB and LLM in Constitutional and Administrative Law with specialisation in Environmental Law (Pret), as well an LLM in Mineral Law and Policy (Dund, UK). He is currently reading towards an LLD on the topic of the International Seabed Authority's contribution towards the development and regulation of deep seabed mining.  He was admitted as an Advocate of the High Court of South Africa in 2009. Leon was awarded a Rio Tinto-FCO-Chevening Scholarship (£25,948) for postgraduate studies in Mineral Law and Policy, in 2010, and is a member of the Golden Key International Academic Honours Society, University of Pretoria Chapter.

Leon's expertise is in Mineral- and Environmental Law and Policy, with his research and teaching activities relating to the regulation and governance of mining, particularly the developmental, social and environmental aspects of the sector. His primary research stream is on the incipient field of regulatory frameworks for seabed mining. His secondary research streams include the relationship between mining and development in Africa; emergent mineral value chains; responsible mineral resource governance; the optimisation of mining agreements; security and conflict in the natural resource sectors,  and the implications of international environmental law for mining operations.