A College of Law professor and a group of Syracuse University students visited South Africa during Spring Break to study the country’s legal system.

Deborah Kenn organized the week-long course so that students could study the country’s constitutional, economic and social past and present, according to a March 4 SU News press release. It is the second time Kenn has put together a trip of this kind.

The course was made possible because of a partnership between SU and the University of Fort Hare in Alice, Eastern Cape, South Africa, which is home to the Nelson R. Mandela School of Law, according to the press release.

“The transition of the South African legal system from apartheid to the present is critical for our law students to understand,” Kenn said in the press release. “For students interested in understanding international justice, as well as our own country’s history of intentional discrimination and racism, this opportunity is invaluable.”

During the trip, Kenn and students visited several sites, such as the Constitutional Court. The Constitutional Court is the highest court, equivalent to the United States’ Supreme Court, Kenn said in an email. The group heard arguments in an age discrimination case that the 11 Justices of the Constitutional Court were hearing, she added.

The group also visited other government agencies, townships, non-governmental organizations and historically segregated universities, according to the press release.

Kenn said they also visited Soweto, a township in South Africa. Mark O’Brien, a senior in the College of Law, said in an email that they also visited Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth, the Nelson Mandela National Museum and Nelson Mandela’s prison cell on Robben Island near Cape Town.